Thanks to an unexpected health issue, I have neither the time nor the steam to do justice to a meaty blog post this month. But rather than completely ignore my intention to publish monthly, I’m about to once again practice what I so often preach: I’m going to lower the bar enough so I can clear it, and by doing so, keep the spirit of my intention alive.
There’s a huge difference between just blowing off an intention completely vs. scaling it down when necessary so you can at least keep acting in accord with its spirit.
Honoring the spirit of your intention
Suppose you’re working on a project — let’s say a book — and you intend to spend at least an hour a day on it. Things have been going along fine, but today, for whatever reason, the very idea of spending an hour writing makes you want to scream.
If you let yourself off the hook completely, you’ll weaken your intention and run the risk of letting it get hopelessly lost in the shuffle.
Instead, you could lower the bar enough to clear it, that is, make it as easy as necessary for you to at least honor the spirit of the intention. You could require yourself, for example, to do nothing more today than sit for a few minutes in the place where you normally do your writing. This will allow you to maintain some forward momentum and keep the intention alive.
You might even be in store for a surprise
Once you’ve given yourself permission to do nothing more than sit, you might be surprised to find yourself writing! Giving yourself permission to do less of what you’re dreading can sometimes paradoxically pave the way for you to actually do more.
If you’ve already enrolled in the Follow Through Master Program and have completed The Follow Through Strategies course, you may recognize this strategy as Leading the Horse to Water.
The Leading the Horse to Water strategy has prevented lots and lots of worthy intentions from disappearing through the black hole in inner space. So, the next time you’re about ready to just blow off an intention, don’t! Instead, give Leading the Horse to Water a try.