I was sitting with a friend listening to him prattle on about his overly hostile relationship with his wife.  My mind wandered all over the place. I struggled to even care about anything being said, so listening was an even greater challenge.  I have heard this same story from him over and over again.  

All of the sudden I was struck by the idea that I was clueless to what his intention and what my intention was at that very moment.  I ask him, “What is your intention in telling me all of this?”  He looked at me puzzled.  “I don’t really know,” he replied.

So I began rapidly spitting questions at him:

• Is your intention to vent?
• Is your intention to seek my opinion?
• Is your intention to seek commiseration?
• Is your intention to gain sympathy?
• Is your intention to find solutions?
• Do you have any intention of doing something about your marriage?

I could see the strain of thought as he processed my inquisition.

My mind had been wandering and quite frankly a was annoyed because, I had no idea what my intention was in listening to him.  I didn’t know what to focus on.

I needed to know his intentions in order to understand what my intention should be. He finally shared that what he really wanted to do was vent but maybe he should change his intention.  This was the epiphany.

In order to obtain Excellence, you have to get intentional about EVERYTHING!

I started to ask myself in everything I did, “What is my intention here?”

• When I sat down in front of the TV, I asked, “What is my intention?”
• When I sat at my desk preparing for the following day, I asked, “What is my intention?”
• When I walked into the room where my kids were, I asked, “What is my intention?”

All of the sudden I’m getting far more intentional with everything I’m doing. I’m also moving more quickly toward Excellence than ever before. Go be intentional! I would love to hear your thoughts.