Intentionalists Anonymous

WHY?

2010-03-07T21:37:00.000-08:00

Why did we forget about this blog?
I'm upset... mostly at myself.

Shall we try again?

k

A Refinement on Setting Goals

2009-03-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

Interesting piece in the Boston Globe I found by way of the Blog of the Nation from NPR...

Goals are great. "Among psychologists, the link between setting goals and achievement is one of the clearest there is, with studies on everyone from woodworkers to CEOs showing that we concentrate better, work longer, and do more if we set specific, measurable goals for ourselves." I've talked about the importance of specifics and metrics in setting goals on this blog before. Goals and reaching or not reaching them are pretty much the foundation of all our dramatic narratives (total Matt Good uncited conjecture). Goals are good. But of course, the worthy aphorism "Know Thyself" applies as much here as everywhere else...

There is risk in setting goals. This is pretty obvious on a small scale (visiting the grocery store with the goal of buying some beef does not help you if you are making fish, even if you did reach your goal). Of course, it's easy to pretend that a given concept, when properly dressed up with bigger words and impressive, accomplished backers, is not at its core that given concept at all. Seems to be happening a lot in our world these days.

Take GM: they set out to regain 29% market share, but "In clawing toward its number, GM offered deep discounts and no-interest car loans. The energy and time that might have been applied to the longer-term problem of designing better cars went instead toward selling more of its generally unloved vehicles." Yop. Wrong goal. Except in this case, it turns out that the goal they set was mutually exclusive with the goal they should've set. Oops.

Right about now, you're supposed to think about myopia and remember that I wrote up a nice little post about Wakefulness of Mind just a few minutes ago. Being wakeful (or intellectually curious) will help you to set the correct goals, and to realize when one specific goal is mucking up the broader picture.

Are the two in conflict? No, they actually are in harmony, even though they work on opposite ends of the spectrum. Wakefulness attempts to understand all aspects of an issue, and goals attempt to focus on just one of it's facets. Either without the other is suboptimal.

Another reason rampant goal-setting can be dangerous: "Business professors Maurice Schweitzer of the University of Pennsylvania and Lisa Ordonez of the University of Arizona, co-wrote a 2004 paper on what people do when they fall just short of their goals. According to Ordonez and Schweitzer's experiment, in which subjects played a word game and then reported how well they did at it, what people do is lie to make up the difference." This is not the kind of thing you want large companies to be tempted to do when sales are down. Or car companies to do when their Pintos keep exploding

Here's a few more choice quotes from the article that sum up some of the new thinking on goals:

"Goal setting has been treated like an over-the-counter medication when it should really be treated with more care, as a prescription-strength medication."
"You know how Shakespeare wrote that the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves?" asks Latham, a professor at the University of Toronto. "Well, the fault is not in our goals but in our values."
If you are GM, argues Schweitzer, "You clearly don't want 29 percent market share, you want something much more complicated than that."

I think the takeaway here for us is to know ourselves. It should be easier for us to monitor how well a goal is working than it is for a huge corporation of tens of thousands of people. But is it really any easier to know ourselves? To know what we really want? Perhaps not. But it is perhaps the most important requirement for being intentional, and one that should be in a state of continuous reevaluation.

Wakefulness of Mind

2009-03-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

I saw a little something from Philip Pullman, author of the "His Dark Materials" series (and who I would usually not really give much of a care about), that caught my attention. In a speech to the Convention of Modern Liberty (whatever that's about), he talks about what he calls "wakefulness of mind:"

"Another virtue that a nation needs is intellectual curiousity. Wakefulness of mind, one might put it. A nation with that quality would be aware of itself, conscious of itself and its history, and every separate thread that makes up the tapestry of its culture...

"A nation where this virtue was strong, would be active and enquiring of mind, quick to perceive and compare and consider. Such a nation would know at once when a government tried to interfere with its freedoms. It would remember how all those freedoms had been gained, because each one would have a story attached to it, and an attack on any of them would feel like a personal affront. That is the value of wakefulness."

Isn't that a rather nice articulation of what it means to be a thinking person? For those of us who have a strong sense of context, it just sets our geek-o-meters a buzzin'.

The term "Wakefulness of Mind" is also pretty good on its own. It does a little more than "intellectual curiosity." "Curiosity" implies that what you are considering is trivial, optional. "Wakefulness" implies that thinking about something on a deeper level is essential to your very consciousness. What a nice way of putting it.

Tip 'o the hat to the fabulously nerdy Lisa Gold: Research Maven blog, from which I pulled (and pared down) the excerpt.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

2009-01-14T01:44:00.000-08:00

My first post...

I found this book enjoyable. Is America full of fundamentalists? Justin has always hated, and has never wanted to work for "The Man," but has found himself in a job that, though not directly responsible, is responsible for futuristically hurting the common man. I find it increasingly peculiar that Hamid addresses American society as "pragmatic and effective." Do we as people just cut what we don't need, despite the cost for a person's quality of life and future happiness? I could get into corporations and such, touching on how much outsourcing is done by American businesses overseas for cost savings so as to increase profits, but I don't know all the numbers for that.

Another idea present in the book I latched onto was that Americans, after 9/11, were looking back instead of forward. I have yet to read any of the literature (novels) put out by Barack Obama even though I voted for him, but I hope I am not naive in my hope that he is looking forward. Isn't that what we are supposed to be doing as "intentionalist?" Looking forward? Is not being "intentional" premeditation on an idea, belief or occurrence and then pursuing it? Well, in light of this book, I hope that your goals/intentions do not in any way adhere to fundamentals. That you take into consideration the world and community in which the effects of our intentions evolve. Would that not be the proper Christian-like attitude?

Anyway, those are just thoughts I felt like sharing. I would be interested in hearing your ideas.

I know, I know...

2008-12-28T23:38:00.000-08:00

So. First post.

I am only now just posting because I can't get a grip on my life. My friends are better about looking things up on the internet, making lists and following them, knowing cool things... in short, you all are better about being intentional. This is my first step in becoming more like you.

I decided to get in on this list craze. I can't help it. I make lists... but my lists are often neglected. My lists are more about organizing my thoughts and ideas even though they are often in the form of specific goals or intentions. I often don't follow my lists. I often view lists as something to break. I think it's part of my particular "gifted-ness." Kate has me reading Gifted Grownups and I'm loving it. But this is not the post for discussing that book, merely a sidetrack of my original intention... so let me get focused.

In my quest to be intentional I realized over the last month that I really enjoy making things. I made an knitted afghan, a 12-foot long scarf, 3 wood-burnings and am working on an advent calendar for my sister. All in one month (oh, and Jacob Eckeberger requisitioned me to embroider him some pillows) and I want to do more of it!

So, armed with my desire to create (and a growing fear of relying on my parents for money forever) I started an Etsy.com store. That's right. I signed up. I created an account. Hello world!

That being said I'm not really looking to make a lot of money (hardly any, in fact) but I fully believe that having a store will help me in my quest to be intentionally creative.

We shall see.

Adam Savage is one of us

2008-12-21T22:17:00.000-08:00

This is inspiring. I love obsessed people. I love love love love love love love love love love them to death.

Adam Savage is hereby on my list of favorite people.

(Also, that Fora.tv website is quite an awesome thing in its own right - sortof like TED. Check it out.)

SMART Goals

2008-12-20T21:55:00.000-08:00

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound goals.

Bek's comment on my Body & Mind post reminded me of a concept I had heard about on another blog I read: SMART goals (see above). It's sort of a management concept - an attempt to quantify nebulous things like "goals." I think most of the implications of SMART goals should be pretty obvious, but you may want to take a minute to think about each part of the acronym, especially if you have a tendency to skip over details sometimes, like I do.

I realize as I'm writing this that your opinion of the usefulness of this framework will be heavily based on how you tend to analyze events and data. I personally like to quantify it, so that I can attempt to use other logical frameworks to determine success, failure, and possible future courses of action. I like to do this because I am not good at thinking about and weighing subjective information. In fact, I'm so bad at it that I kept wanting to use words like "quantities" and "data" to describe what I meant in that last sentence. I need to determine what I consider to be important about a subjective piece of information, quantify it, and process it that way. It's easy to understand this as a literal metaphor: if you need to go to "the store," it's going to be easier to do if you already know exactly how to get there. If you have to go look up the address, make sure they're open, and see if they even have what you're looking for... you just might get overwhelmed and just turn on the TV instead. SMART goals get rid of all of those barriers between you and getting stuff done.

So for me, a SMART goal is something that I can USE. If I only had vague & time-insensitive goals, I would stall when I tried to decide what to do about it. I would have to wait until it was turned into something more precise before I could do anything about it anyway...

If you find your brain working at all like mine, I am very deeply sorry. But! If that is the case, consider writing down your goals, asking if they fit the SMART criteria, and perhaps making any necessary conversions. Because it's much easier to ACT on something if it's ready to go. All of this is useful for To Do Lists, Bucket Lists, Life Goals, Shopping Lists, ANYTHING, really.

Not Listless

2008-12-19T13:04:00.000-08:00

While perusing through my usual Internet stomping grounds I found the blog Handmade Homeschool through a series of links and was really charmed by the author's writing and pictures and great projects she is doing with her kids. While poking around I found this list that is part of a project that she is taking part in called 100 Things In 1001 Days. I really was fascinated by her list and was feeling a little jealous of all the cool things on it compared to my at the moment only conceptual list of goals.

I decided to follow more links to get to the homepage of 100 Things In 1001 Days, which is called Day Zero and was really excited when I found an ongoing blog with questions to think about and catalysts to get my brain moving in the right direction. The project.. or just tool.. i'm not sure what to call it... is summed up on their site as "Welcome to Day Zero, the home of the 1001 Day Project. A unique meme that challenges and inspires you to set and complete realistic goals in life." The idea also is that 1001 days is a more workable time frame than the often used 1 year because it gives you multiple seasons for scheduling etc. Good thinking!
So far I have decided that this is a pretty happy site. It may not be incredibly functional for trying to figure out who the heck started it or anything like that (although I did find that eventually) and why, but my favorite thing so far is the giant list of lists that you can check out dating back to 2003 AND post your own.
As some of us think about life goals this could be a great place to check out for ideas and brainstorming :) Onward!!!
B

Body and Mind

2008-12-18T19:15:00.000-08:00

Two things I am doing (intentionally):

1) Pushups. Yes, pushups.

Okay well, I just started. So I'm barely doing pushups. But, for as much as I like to make fun of runners and occasionally other athletic people, I would prefer to not die young. I really should be doing cardiovascular stuff for the most effect in the "I'm-too-young-to-die"-department, but for me right now, an important part of being intentional is incremental improvements. A bird in hand and all of that.

I'm planning to roughly follow this website, which claims to be able to equip you to do 100 consecutive pushups in 6 weeks - a bold claim. Anyway, it doesn't take a lot of time, no special equipment, and I can do it while I'm otherwise completely unproductive (i.e. watching TV). (Maximizing my time seems to be a BIG part of what I feel I need to be productive, and making my downtime productive is a huge thing.) As a bonus, perhaps I will fit into some of my clothes better if this all works out. So there's that.

2) Failing Tests. Yes, failing tests. There is a method to my madness.

I've been working towards getting a Microsoft certification for a while now. It should help make me a more "portable" employee and make raises - anyway it's moving FORWARD rather than just sitting there. There are two tests involved. After remembering how to study (hint: write EVERYTHING down), and figuring out the quirks of the particular test (hint: they ask for asinine details), I took the first test a couple months ago. And yeah, I kicked ass. So I took some time off studying to learn this whiz-bang thing called jQuery (time off??) and bought a book for the next test. And proceed to not open it.

Until today. Kate convinced me to sign up for a test on TUESDAY which I am almost certain to MASSIVELY FAIL. Why is this wise? Because AFTER I fail this test, I get to take it again for free anytime before June 31st, 2009. So, I get a "swing-for-the-fences,-kid"-chance at passing the sucker, a free practice test, a deadline for passing the test, and a guide to direct my study until then. So it's a good idea. It was sort of odd to send off the email to my boss which more or less said that I would be out in the morning on tuesday so I can fail a test. [sad trombone]

---

So that is how I am being intentional.

BE INSPIRED!

2008-12-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

This cracked me up...

Another shout out to Magaret Feinberg

2008-12-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

I know everyone is busy with the holidays coming up, but I wanted to give one more link for the sake of my like of Margaret Feinberg. Here is a link to the podcast of her speaking at NCC a couple weeks ago. Prepare yourself for some healthy butt kicking. I just appreciated getting a talk about dream following from a new voice. She has a lot to say about listening to the voice of God... which is fascinating to me and mysterious and confusing. Check out her message via audio or video at NCC's website and give my former employer some love :)
I have a few more things to post hopefully in the next week, but just in case nobody has informed you... I will be personally working on my lst of life goals during the holidays and at very least the Kateness and I will sit down and chat about thoughts on this and share helpful things we have found. Join the conversation and bring something helpful (book maybe? article? podcast?) to the table with you.
Mucho love.
B

The question we all seem to ask...

2008-12-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

I am about 3/4 of the way through What The Heck Am I Going To Do With My Life? by Margaret Feinberg and I at very least wanted to put this out there to let you know how much I am loving it. Feinberg is a good friend of our church out here in DC and comes by to speak every once in a while and I have enjoyed her every time! This is my second read of hers, the first being The Organic God which was also a great read which set me up for this book.

Feinberg masterfully weaves together observations about types, strengths and God-given calling in this very helpful guide to think about how to find your place in the world. Her young and hip voice keeps you interested while imparting wisdom and asking all the right questions to get the gears turning about what the future might hold. Not only is this book a great read, but it is cleverly formatted with places to write in answers and dialogue with the questions and thought points that she presents during each chapter, forcing you to take practical application steps immediately.

And you know what is even better? You can get a preview of this at google book search! Usually I am all about offering up my copy of a book for borrowing, but I think you will all be on your own with this one.... think Christmas list.

Love you all!
B

Advent Week 1

2008-12-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

i have recently started attending Edgehill United Methodist in Nashville. it's an ultra-liberal, ultra-hippie, amazingly fun church. and they started an Advent Adult Sunday School class yesterday. i went, because it was advertised as 'finding your passions' or something like that and i thought it would be helpful to make life goals. i was probably the youngest in the class by about 25 years, but i met this really cool old guy who talked all about how weird it is to be retired and not have anything to do and he just realized that maybe all of the different careers in his life were not actually what he truly wanted to do, but what others had told him he would be good at. (he was a freaking neuropsychologist...) it was startling how closely his story aligns with mine, except i am starting and he is ending. when i told him that he said i should go to seminary (haha...check!). i think it is so important to find what really gives you joy and gives you fulfillment and not just what others would approve of or want you to do. i realize that a lot of times making other people happy is fulfilling or joyful for you, but there really has to be a balance.

ok, done for now. here is the Bible study we did yesterday in class. i really really challenge you to think about the questions at the end. i thought they were totally out of context questions for the passage, but then was floored when i figured out the connections.

ADVENT STUDY #1: What longs to be born in me?

Luke 1:26-38 New Revised Standard Version

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33He will reign over the house of JAcob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." 34 Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to beorn will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God." 38 Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:26-38 The Message translation - Eugene Peterson

In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth to a virgin engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the virgin's name, MAry. Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her:
Good morning!
You're beautiful with God's beauty,
Beautiful inside and out!
God be with you.
She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, "Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.

He will be great,
be called 'Son of the Highest.'
The Lord God will give him
the throne of his father David;
He will rule Jacob's house forever -
no end, ever, to his kingdom."

Mary said to the angel, "But how? I've never slept with a man." The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest hover over you; Therefore, the child you bring to birth will be called Holy, Son of God. And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months' pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God." And Mary said, "Yes, I see it all now; I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say." The the angel left her.

Reflection Questions:

What does the passage tell me about God?

What is it that longs to be born (expanded) in me this season?

Do my longings come from within me or from what others say I should want?

Will the things I long for bring healing to others as well as to myself?

Will my desires draw me closer to God?

2008-11-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

I have lately been obsessing over TED.com. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) was originally started as a conference that brought together people from those three fields, but now the scope is much wider. Every year they invite 50 people who have contributed to their field in some significant way to give the 18-minute speech of their lives at a 4-day conference. The purpose of TED is to encourage interdisciplinary work and they sponsor a huge monetary award for people who develop ideas based on conversations or work they did at the TED conference (such as the One Campaign). The cool thing about TED is not the speakers, but the audience. It's invitation only to the world's thinkers and doers and people who have also contributed something significant to their field. It's a highly concentrated experience of amazingness. [and they address the problem of elitism here http://www.ted.com/index.php/pages/view/id/185 ]

They are now starting to stream all of the speeches online. Brilliant.

Anyway! Here is Tony Robbins motivating a room full of the world's most motivated people. And he knows what he's doing.

Tony Robbins - Why We Do What We Do
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/tony_robbins_asks_why_we_do_what_we_do.html

The Beginning

2008-11-18T09:43:00.000-08:00

This blog was created for the purpose of living with purpose and intention. We will strive to come up with a process and resources that will be helpful to ourselves and others in the way of learning to be intentional with our lives.. as not to waste something so precious.
Let the journey begin!