Profit and Poverty

I did it! I didn’t hit snooze, well only once, and now I am sitting at my desk writing my blog at 4:44 A.M. If you read yesterday’s post, you’ll know that this is no small feat for me. I have been trying for days to make this happen, let the experiment begin!

Today I want to talk about the power of intention. Intention means to have or set an aim or plan. Waking up this morning 90 minutes earlier than normal became a reality because I set the intention that no matter what, I would not turn my alarm off. There would be no “Siri, set my alarm for 6 A.M.” command this morning. Changing my idea to wake up 90 minutes earlier from an idea to a plan of how I was going to accomplish the task, turned my idea into a reality.

For as long as I could remember, my head has been full of ideas. If I could simply be paid to create ideas, I’d be laying on a beach, staring out at my yacht this morning rather than preparing myself to remove the sheet of ice from my driveway. For me, ideas have NEVER been in short supply. However, sorting through the good from the bad, and following through with the ones that had merit, has been. It reminds me of an old riddle. 5 seagulls sat on a fence. One decided to fly away. How many birds are left? (the answer in a few moments).

What changed for me this morning was that I created fail proof plan of action. Before I went to bed last night I placed my phone on the other side of my night stand. By doing this, I would consciously have to search for its location. Also, I set an intention that no matter what, I would NOT turn the alarm off or reset it. That meant that I only had 2 options. I could get up or repeatedly hit snooze every 5 minutes for the next 90 minutes. When the alarm sounded for the second time, not only was I extremely annoyed by the sound, but I was also conscious enough to remember WHY waking up early was important to me. Once I did, my feet hit the ground and my day began.

Creating this game plan, so to speak, made all the difference. The plan, plus execution, changed my idea of waking up early into a reality. Proverbs 21:5 says, “the plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”  I don’t think that there is a better example of “living” this proverb than my battle with the alarm clock. This morning my “plan” lead me to “profit”. My “profit” was a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that could only have been attained through execution. Every other morning this week, it was my excessive speed and urgency, otherwise known as haste, that silenced the alarm and returned me to my slumber. Though my dance with the alarm clock didn’t change my financial status, I did beat myself up, a lot, for not following through. So if the “profit” in waking up early was a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, “poverty” would be my feelings of regret, defeat and anger for not following through.

Setting the intention to wake up earlier was not enough. It wasn’t until I set the intention to not fail, that I finally succeeded. The problem with most goals, plans, ideas or intentions, call it what you want they are all the same, is that without execution, they are nothing more than thoughts in your head. The lesson I learned today is that the next time I set an intention, I’m going to dig deeper into that intention and create a plan of execution that won’t allow me to fail, a plan where success is inevitable.

So what about the seagulls? 5 seagulls sat on a fence. One decided to fly away. How many seagulls are left?

The answer? 5. Deciding to fly away and taking the action to actually fly away are two different things. Without execution (action) nothing changes.

Intention + Execution= Results

Have a great day!

Kevin