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Ph.D., CSP, CDR, US Navy Ret.,
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Learn How Intentional Working Can Help You Achieve Your Career Goals

Intentional working enables us to achieve our goals by ensuring that the choices we make are aligned with our end goals. Understanding the significance of intentional actions that are based on intentional choices allows us to accomplish our top goals.

Some people are confused by goals. They think that once they achieve those goals, happiness magically descends and everyone lives happily ever after. (I just watched Into the Woods. Again.)

We know that anything worthwhile means constant process improvement. Once we achieve a specific set of goals, it is time to envision new ones. Constantly moving forward strengthens our faith in our abilities, builds our self-confidence, helps us see more possibilities, and make our goals attainable.

5 Ways Intentional Working Helps Achieve Goals

1.Intentional working means making the right choices
Intentional people recognize that the key to achieving a goal is taking the right action at the right time. For instance, if you want to make twenty more loans this year, you set daily, weekly, as well as monthly goals that will guide you in that direction and get you where you need to be. You break down twenty loans into daily or weekly manageable targets. For example, decide to make five extra outbound calls per week. That is just one more call per day, which is manageable.

Want to live healthier? Make small, healthier choices by taking the stairs, going to the gym, picking up an exercising class, eating more green vegetables, substituting sugary drinks with water, and avoiding foods that cause health problems.

Deliberate goals encourage deliberate choices which guide us in the right direction and enable us to achieve what you want.

2.Intentional working strengthens core values
Working with intention encourages us to stand by our values or beliefs, and increases our faith in what we believe in. It reminds us that our life is our own. Our life is important, and we do not have to compare it to anyone else’s life. Comparing our success to others is comparing apples to oranges. Our values may be different. That does not mean better or worse, it is simply different. Comparison often robs us of our happiness and focus.

Working intentionally means we are not controlled by our environment or circumstances. Plane is delayed? Okay. Lose a big client? Okay. Make a new plan and move forward. We live by what we can control. What we control are our values and how we respond during crisis or change.

3.Intentional working means focusing on the big picture
“What needs improvement?”
“Where can I improve?”
“How can I make this situation better?”

We need to be constantly questioning to stay focused to continuously improve. Reaching work goals requires constant growth and adjustments. A setback today does not mean ultimate failure. It means reassessing the situation and mapping out a new plan.

To stay focused on what is important, instead of getting discouraged, remind yourself of your intention. Ask
“Who am I serving?”
“Where am I going?”
“What do I want to accomplish?”

4.Intentional working capitalizes strengths
Knowing our talents and skills keeps us from doubt. Doubts sometime creep in as:
“I’m not sure I know how to do this.”
“What if I am in over my head?”
“Will others realize that I am not the expert here?”

Doubts make us question our abilities. Focusing on our strengths pushes out doubt.
It helps us realize our purpose, our worth, and what we can accomplish.

Working with intention makes us realize that we have what it takes to be successful.

5.Working intentionally helps us make smart long-term decisions
Real leaders know that distractions tend to be short-term. Strategic planning means looking long-term at what is best.
Donuts are my kryptonite. I love donuts. But I also know that donuts are a short-term event with longer-term consequences. Let us say I eat the donut. The enjoyment is short-term, but then I must spend several hours trying to recover from the negative health impact of eating the donut.
Before I eat the donut, it might help me to ask:
“Will this help me to get a step closer to or further away from my goal?”
“Is this worth it?”
“Am I willing to live with the long-term consequences?”

Short-term gratification can cause us to take a moment to decide what is important to us.

Intentional people ask intentional questions, which are key to making smart and informed decisions. Train your mind to constantly produce deliberate questions that play a significant role in making intelligent decisions and in moving forward. If taking that next step aligns with your goal, do not hesitate to take it. If it has nothing to do with what you are aiming for, do not take the step, because it will only delay your progress.

Being intentional in all things keeps you ahead of everything else. It gives you the strength to keep working, continue trying, and keep believing. An intentional life is a life focused on what you believe in, what you want to become, what you are meant to achieve, and who you are meant to be, as well as where you are going.

Be deliberate when setting work goals and work intentionally.

 

2 Comments

  1. Susan Koye

    Intentional working is being mindful and present in a focused, goal-directed oriented manner on what truly matters for high quality living. Thank you Mary Kelly for these superb weekly thought provoking articles with pearls and gems of wisdom!

    Reply
    • Mary Kelly

      Susan! I’m so honored by your kind comment! You are one of the most accomplished people I know! And you manage to do so much and you do everything with such a generous heart! I am so glad we are friends! Big hugs, Mary

      Reply

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