5 Ways High Intention Will Make You Progress Faster

How to Have Greater Clarity When Pursuing Your Goals

5 min readJun 4, 2019

When we have a high intention to achieve something we want, with no attachment to it, we can achieve it faster.

The starting point to achieve anything new is a desire or an intention. The stronger our desire or intention, the more energy we’ll give to achieve it.

A high intention can be the difference between achieving something we want or not.

What Does Having High Intention Mean?

Having a high intention means we’ve defined what we want and are emotionally connected to it. It’s having the awareness and the commitment to do what’s required to achieve our goal.

We can make things difficult for ourselves if we have a high intention for something with an attachment to it. Sometimes, constantly striving and becoming obsessed about what we want, in an unhealthy way, can slow down our progress.

The ideal situation is to have a high intention to achieve our goal, but have a low attachment to it.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care or take action to achieve our goal. It means we don’t have to focus on our goal obsessively. We have to learn to trust we’ll achieve our goal at the right time.

The Different Stages of Intention and Attachment

High Intention / High Attachment. This is when we’re constantly striving and pushing ourselves. It can lead to mental and physical exhaustion or burnout.
High Intention / Low Attachment. This is when we’re doing what’s required to achieve our goal, but we don’t make mean anything about us. If we fall short or don’t achieve our goal, we know we did the best we could. If we achieve our goal, we can celebrate the win and be satisfied with our efforts.
Low Intention / High Attachment. This is where we want to achieve something, but don’t take the necessary actions to achieve it. This often generates unhealthy emotions when we don’t achieve our goal.
Low Intention / Low Attachment. This is where we don’t have goals or aren’t clear about what we want, therefore we do nothing new. Since we don’t know what we want, we achieve nothing of significance in our lives.

Our ability to have a high intention and a low attachment to what we want will make us progress faster.

A few years ago, I bought tickets in a raffle, where the first prize was a $1,000 gift card. I bought three tickets and set an intention to win the first prize. It only took a few seconds where I closed my eyes and imagined winning the first prize.

I then let it go by shifting my focus to what I needed to do next. I had no attachment to winning the first prize.

A couple of weeks later, I received a phone call saying I had won the first prize. For a short moment, I was delighted then I remembered the moment I bought the tickets. Since I had a sense I would win the first prize, I accepted that it shouldn’t have been a surprise. A high intention and a low attachment was a factor in winning that prize.

There have been many occasions where I’ve bought raffle tickets and obsessed about winning. On those occasions, I won nothing and I think it’s because I was too attached to winning.

When we have low attachment to our goals with a high intention, we’re more likely to speed up its achievement.

5 Ways High Intention Will Lead to Faster Progress

Here are five ways having a high intention will make you progress faster toward what you want.

You will have greater levels of clarity. Having a high intention means we’re clear about what we want. The level of clarity we have affects our commitment and motivation levels to do what’s necessary.
You will deal with distractions or disruptions better. When we know what we want, it’s easier to eliminate things that will not move us closer to what we want. As we continue to eliminate distractions and disruptions, we’ll progress faster.
You will be more focused. When we eliminate disruptions and distractions, our ability to concentrate well will continue to improve. The more focused we are, the more effective we’ll be.
You will be in action mode consistently. When we have a strong desire and intention, we’re more likely to use our time better. This means we’ll identify actions we need to take and carry them out as best as we can.
You will not procrastinate. Procrastination is often a symptom of lack of clarity. When we know what we want, it’s easier to remain positive and motivated to do what’s required.

Conclusion

Having high intention is linked to having high levels of clarity. With more clarity comes better decisions, which means we’ll take the right actions consistently.

This will lead to faster progress and greater levels of success.

Action Step: Reflect on your goals and assess whether you have a strong desire or a high intention to achieve them. Create a stronger intention by defining what your end result is for each of your goals.

Question: What are other ways high intention will make you progress faster?