Ed. Note: In honor of Father’s Day we wanted to publish this classic blog post from Professor Kelly because we all know that dads give the best, most helpful advice and counsel. Happy Father’s Day Sir!
Grandmaster Lim once said to me “Know your intentions. If you are going to strike, then strike. If you are going to run, then run. But know what you are going to do, and then do it.”
To me this means that what is in our brains had better be revealed in our actions, otherwise: no success.
I was reminded recently about intentions watching an associate struggle with hardships he created himself although his “intentions” were otherwise. Bottom line: Saying it doesn’t make it so. I think this conflict inhibits our success in a huge way. If we can get our intentions in alignment with our actions, what an amazing life we can have!
How do we facilitate living with intention, thus turning our intention into action?
Motivational speaker and close friend of Pit Master, Tony Robbins has a ritual that he does every morning, no matter what. He says it focuses his minds on his intentions and how he will create the actions necessary to carry them out. Every morning, he takes a walk for at least 10-minutes and then thinks about these things (in order);
1. Think of 3 things you are grateful for.
2. Thing of how you are going to help others today
3. Imagine the life you want to create, vividly as if it has already happened.
Tony Robbins says: “I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk.”
Attention is the glue that helps our actions become in alignment with our intentions. As we pay attention to our goals, we will start doing the things that are needed to further our goals. As we pay attention to what we do and what we say we can analyze ourselves and make adjustments either to our goals or our actions.
Remember the mantra “Mind, Body, Spirit…as One?” This reminds me of the importance of our intentions being aligned with our actions. I believe that it takes constant effort for us to be striving for that alignment. And the result of that effort is success. The opposite cannot even be considered failure, just confusion and random happenstance.
And remember, we make the world a better place by our actions, not just our intentions. Lets put our actions to work and let our actions speak for themselves.
There it is – do what you say. Live your intentions. If you can’t, change and adapt it. It seems we are guaranteed a successful life by doing this. I certainly want that!
-Professor Kelly
