Let me share with you one of my favorite ideas from my next book, Intentional: How to Finish What You Start . I call it the “Intention Stack.” Understanding it is the key to attaining more of your goals. (If you're curious, we chat about these ideas in this week's podcast episode, too!)
An intention is just a plan that we will do something. Every day and across our lives, we set intentions of all shapes and sizes. In the moment, we might set an intention to tie our shoelaces before going for a run. We might also have an intention that takes place over a longer time than this, such as training for a half marathon over the next six months. Or an even longer timeframe: we might have an intention to be the kind of person who values our health.
Intentions vary in lots of ways. Some are short in duration, others are long. Some are deep (connected with our values), others are weak. Intentions also vary in where they come from and in how strong they are (how much we desire doing them). I cover all these ideas in the book—they're all interesting in their own right!
The final powerful way intentions differ from one another is that they are nested inside of one another. This is illustrated in what I call the Intention Stack. Here's what the stack looks like. This illustration is pulled right from the book:
The wider the intention, the longer the timeline it requires.
As you can see, there are five sections of the Intention Stack, all of which vary in the duration of their intentions. Our intentions can be as small a moment or as large as a life.
- Present intention: What we are doing in the moment.
- Plans: The daily, weekly, and monthly intentions we set to execute on our goals.
- Goals: The stories of change we are creating.
- Priorities: The broader aims we have in our life, which our goals connect with.
- Values: Our longest-term goals and intentions. Values are our innermost guiding principles, which all of our daily actions connect with (or don't). As I've written about in the past, there are twelve fundamental values that we all share.
It's easiest to illustrate this with an example. Imagine you're dialing into a conference call, because you're expanding your business into a new market. Here is the intention stack that might be behind this goal:
For our goals to be motivating, they must be aligned with our top values—as well as our daily actions. In every single moment of our life, there is a similar Intention Stack guiding what we are doing.
Shaping this Intention Stack is the key to attaining the goals we set.
(If you're interested, here's a link to pick up a copy of Intentional!)
