http://www.care2.com/greenliving/youve-got-to-really-want-this.html
You’ve Got to Really Want This
Several years ago, I read something about the scientifically proven best way to do laundry. You’re supposed to fill with water first, then soap, then clothes. I’d been doing it backwards for almost 40 years. I decided to start doing it right. It’s now six years later and I have never done it “correctly.” I always forget until I’ve already loaded the clothes and am pouring in the detergent.
This story reveals a couple things. First, how hard it is to change a habit, even a small one. If I were really to change, I’d need to post reminders on the washer. When I caught myself doing it the old way, I’d stop, take the clothes out, and put the water in first. I’d ask my husband to remind me as he saw me walking toward the laundry room.
Eventually, if I did it enough times, it would become my new routine. But frankly, I don’t care enough to put in the effort.
That’s the crucial point here: How important intention is. Because it takes work, often a lot of work and sacrifice, you have to really want to bring something into being. Deeply, truly, honestly. Otherwise it’s too easy to slide back into the same old, same old.
However, if you really want it, you’ll keep at it. Despite setbacks, interruptions, and sidetracks. No matter how long you get off course, you’ll eventually return—if your intention is strong enough.
So when you begin any change effort, whether it’s to start something new or stop something old, you’ve got to get crystal clear on your intention. Intention is not a wish or a hope. It is a commitment from the deepest part of ourselves to bringing something positive into our lives and or into the world. As such, it is a powerful energizing force that sets the process of change into motion. It’s not something to take lightly.
To try: Think about something you’ve changed in your life in the past. How did intention help you then? How did you keep your intention alive?
Ready to get started? Post your intent and find community support and content to help you achieve it!
In this monthlong learning series, M.J. Ryan, author of the best-selling book This Year I Will…: How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True, will take you through four steps, each lasting one week, to help you figure out what your most important intentions are and give you the tools to make each a reality. Just joining the learning series? Go here to start at the beginning. Intent.com provides content and community for who you aspire to be–personally, socially and globally.
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9 comments
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Kabin
Konteyner
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Paul, talk to any pilot in the northern-most areas of Alaska and they'll tell you the same thing the scientists are saying. They fly over the melting icecaps and see the polar bears drowning in the open seas where the used to be able to swim to and from the ice and land. Talk to any person living in the villages there (my father being one) and they'll tell you about the strange phenomenon of polar bears coming into town as never before. It's because the ice is melting at such an alarming rate that they can no longer survive on it as they once did. Before you say ignorant things, do some research so you don't end up looking stupid.
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Thanks for the laundry advice, Paul (and all), but what is "pathetic" is when people refuse to believe scientific fact, such as that greenhouse gases DO cause global warming and polar bears ARE dying. For one of the many, many, many articles about this, see: http://tinyurl.com/bhd8s
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In response to your question: "Think about something you’ve changed in your life in the past. How did intention help you then?" The "secret" was that I did not think about it as intention at all, I just wanted it so much that I was infused in it. If I analyze how that happened, when we see ourselves working with intention, we are removed from it: we're outside of it as a spectator, monitoring our success or failure. When you are infused in something, you are in it and aligned with it - like a fish swims in water without being aware that water is a separate thing from itself. Intent is already part of who you are.
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ok i did ride in the wind and got a decent workout. yesterday 5 miles, 8.5 today and will continue this way til i get back up to 20 a day. it would be sooo much easier if i were 20!
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There is no right way to do laundry......but after 25+ years of doing it and asking advise from repairmen in the field, I have found that by putting the soap in first, then about an inch of water to dissolve the the soap, then I shut off the water. Put in laundry until full, but do not press down so more can fit; that reduces the lifetime of the plastic parts, that are designed to fail.
The fault I find with the scientific method is I either overstuff or underload and both are very wasteful in time, energy and environmentally.
Besides, these 'scientists' are probably the ones who say the sky is falling, the polar bears are dying and greenhouse gases are causing global warning. How Pathetic!!!!!!
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I intend to ride myu bike everyday to lose that 25 pounds that has crept up, Again! Seems I have been between 130 and 155 ever since my accident and can't seem to maintain the discipline necessary to diet and excersize as I was able to do prior to it. So anyone out there who is in the same boat let me know. I'm diffenately riding today!
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www.intent.com will help you with all you need to know. :)
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I quit smoking 3 years ago and now intend to lose the weight I put on. Help keep me motivated please!
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