It’s important to keep the status of your intentions up to date.

When you create a new Intention Record, by default, the intention’s status is ACTIVE. ACTIVE means that you are fully engaged in efforts to act in accord with the intention.
- Change the status to PAUSED if after reviewing the intention record, you’ve (1) decided to no longer actively work on this intention, but (2) you continue to believe the intention has merit and you therefore plan to consider making it ACTIVE again in the future.
- Change the status to ABANDONED if after reviewing the intention record, you’ve concluded that, for whatever reason, this intention is a lost cause. Maybe it was a bad idea to adopt this intention in the first place, or for some reason, it’s just clearly not doable and unlikely to become doable again in the future. Never hesitate to abandon an intention that’s a lost cause. By carrying an intention around with you that you’re clearly not going to implement, you risk diluting the effectiveness of all your other intentions.
- Change the status to COMPLETED if after reviewing the intention record, you’ve concluded that you’ve successfully implemented the intention and that active effort will no longer be required. Be sure to periodically review your COMPLETED intention records. If you notice any backsliding, you may want to change the status back to ACTIVE again and consider reviving/modifying your Follow Through Plan.