The Qualifications Don't Matter: Why Being Intentional Can Help You Materialize Your Dreams
I never understood why people admired the things I do or the way I think. My intentions were always clear for what I wanted out of life and the reason why, so maybe my intentions are what caused the attention in the first place.
What I couldn't understand was that I didn't do anything differently than what the average person could do for themselves. To me, I've simplified why we are the same and focused less on why we are different: We all have 24 hours in a day, 2 arms and legs, 1 functioning brain, and a partridge in a pear tree. By no means am I a workaholic, but I suspect that one of the reasons why I could not grasp the reasoning for admiration at the level that I was at (not famous, not successful, not wealthy) was due to my upbringing as being the oldest of 3 siblings. I had a sense of leading by example about me, so I never really considered excuses when thinking big because I thought everyone wanted big! I thought everyone had the intention to succeed on a scale bigger than they were "supposed to" succeed on.
In retrospect, I did have a DIY approach to life, but I didn't know that that same approach would expose one of the greatest obstacles for me years later in winning one of the biggest battles of my life: The mindset of where I am vs. where I want to be.
As I write this, I personally don't think that I'm a writer. I know deep down I can be if I put energy into learning the ways of writing, but that's just how I feel about everything I put my mind to in general. While I think it's cliché to identify as randomly crafted phrases, the word "multipotentialite" has been a new word that I think resonates most with me.
A multipotentialite is someone with many interests and creative pursuits.
It stems from the word multipotentiality–a psychological and educational term used to describe people who display aptitudes across multiple disciplines.
Here's the problem though. Because of my multiple potential directions, I would go in the direction of nowhere. If I have a great idea, I over-plan it if I even do plan it out, or overthink the ideas that don't make it to the planning phase. It gets to the point where I use all my creativity on the ideation process, and energy on the excitement and anticipation. I had nothing left in the tank for the execution. So what is the solution? Well, being intentional.
The other issue is that I learn pretty quickly. I can usually grasp concepts as a whole and guess the rest of the in-between details. The reason why I can do this is because I've seen so many different examples of things in life. I can draw conclusions from understanding previous complex things. I love to learn, so my tendency is to want to learn new things often. When learning something new I have to ask myself first, am I bored? Second, am I procrastinating something else? And lastly, what is it I'm afraid of? Because if I don't ask these questions, I risk becoming the jack of many trades and master to none. Being intentional means being self-aware enough to ask the tough questions that lead to introspection. As a result, you understand your strengths and weaknesses better and can craft solutions to instill discipline.
The devil is in the discipline.
As you can see, there has been a lot of introspection. The blessing is that I am aware and on the flip side, the curse can be that I am too aware at times. It's not really a curse curse, because it's really just awareness covered by fear. You're aware of your power. You're aware of your potential. You're scared of it.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world." - Marianne Williamson
In 2019, I posted on my instagram that I would be "More intentional in 2020" and I wanted to challenge everyone to do the same. I left my job in 2019 due to not being able to exercise my right to work remotely... Funny how a pandemic changed their views on that months later. My reasoning was that I had experienced financial challenges that I would not have been able to "save up" my way out of, I had to eliminate expenses and moving back in with my parents seemed to be the only way to do that. In that company, I had felt my creativity slowly be suffocated while I worked the days away and partied the nights away to ignore the pain of living outside of my passion. It fueled a desire in me for purpose, and what was I willing to give up for that? My fortune 100 job in IT.
What ended up happening was resigning broke my world. It shattered my comfort level. My brain was scrambling for a sense of security and I ended up learning in 2019, 2020, and 2021 that trusting my gut feeling is the best security you can have, especially after eating a salad. All dad jokes aside, your instincts are seeds of purpose. When you water those seeds, you create an environment for dreams. When you have the environment to dream, and the uncertainty of instability, you're forced to work towards this dream. Maybe your dream is to make $1 million and you work towards it. Ending your year on a $67,000 YTD revenue is not bad for creating something out of nothing.
When you work for your dreams, your dreams work for you. The universe, or God as I call Him, trusts you with the next leg of the journey because you've proven how much you want it. I call this the roulette reality. The stars align when you work hard for what you want. Why? Because everything is energy. In Physics, this is a law that is called the law of conservation of energy.
The law of conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed - only converted from one form of energy to another.
The energy you have in your dreams is exciting. It is potential energy, or energy that is stored and waiting to be used. When you take action towards your dreams, you convert it into kinetic energy or, energy in motion. An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion until acted upon by an outside force, right? What about people? Don't you think physics applies to people too? It takes the most amount of energy to move an object standing still, so imagine if you took that first step. Imagine if you took another one, and another one. Isn't it easier to push something that's already moving?
The reality that comes is the reality you created through action, or inaction. After all, for something to crumble, all you have to do is not maintain it. That's called the law of entropy. Therefore, it takes intention to bring your dreams into reality and with that intention comes a desire for purpose. By trying things out (aka taking action), you attract opportunities your way that either align or don't align which allows you to become more clear in your purpose. Succeeding in opportunities will give birth to more desire for more purpose. When it's all said and done, look back at what you've accomplished as you materialized your dreams. It's a Thanos moment.
Notice, I didn't mention how qualified you had to be to get started.