I remember a student asking me how to approach a task a few years ago. I said something about "setting your intention.." and he got all exasperated. Apparently 18 months of hearing about "intentions" was just, finally, too damned much for him.
He picked up a box fan and said "so, if I want to interact with this fan, I first have to set my intention??".
I thought about it for a minute and then, ruefully, said "yes".
Intention is seemingly small, quick, and possibly inconsequential. Except it isn't.
When we therapists use the word "intention" we're talking about something critical -- the mindset with which we approach a person or activity. Your mindset absolutely affects how you engage with that person or activity.
Yesterday, I had a brief chat with Barbara George, co-owner of the Lightworkers Cottage, a group practice combining traditional (western) bodywork and esoteric/energetic/metaphysical treatment. We were talking about what it takes to run a business like that.
Barbara used to be a hairdresser and ran a salon. After a divorce in 2007, she underwent some significant changes in her life that led her to owning this practice, along with her friend Ken Warren.
She talks freely about the way things came together, seemingly randomly (but we all know nothing is ever entirely random, don't we?) to lead her to this place. I asked her about what it takes to be a business owner in this kind of environment.
And she quickly told me it was all about (you guessed it) intention.
She said that when she managed a hair salon, she was more focused on income / money / profits. Profits are good but a profits-only focus has some unexpected disadvantages -- it's hard to build anything that's more than just an income generator when you're primary intention is income generation.
I think it makes it much more difficult to be in partnership with the people working in your shop too.
She said that now her intention is to create and manage a space so that others can bring their healing gifts into it. That is her primary intention. She still has to pay attention to all the nuts-and-bolts of running a practice, including the financial responsiblities, but she's got a different focus.
She said that it makes a difference in who works there. When she is approached by someone who wants to be part of the space, she "interviews" them to see if their intention fits with her intentions. If, after working there a while, there isn't a match-up in intentions, the practitioner ends up choosing to leave of their own accord. I don't think she's had to "fire" anyone in two years.
I enjoy visiting with her and talking to her because she just seems....happy. The Lightworkers Cottage is growing. It is attracting more and more clients and classes and workshops. Beyond a website and some print ads in Insight Magazine ("Australia's Number 1 Spiritual Lifestyle Magazine"), she does little conventional marketing.
Setting your intention is not some airy-fairy excuse for not doing anything and just "trusting the universe" to take care of you. Years before I became an MT, I met an MT who was frustrated about the lack of growth in his practice. He said "I don't understand! I put it out to the Universe!". Sadly, I think that was the only thing he did.
Setting your intentions, especially for the business side of your practice, is actually a little bit of work. You actually have to calm your mind, get centered in your heart, and get clear -- and specific -- about your true purpose in the coming day / event / activity / life / whatever.
That means slowing down, quieting down, and tuning in. You may only need 5-10 seconds to that before you walk into a massage session, especially if you make a habit of it. You may need 15 or 20 minutes at the beginning or end of your day. But I've learned that it's something you really do need to do regularly.
It's part of why I do my business retreat every January. I'm doing a lot of things that weekend but one of the things I'm doing, by updating my business plan, is setting my intention for the year.
I gotta tell you, the years I set all kinds of goals about making money and numbers, nothing worked out that way. I think there's just something about being in a healing profession that isn't going to respond, primarily, to numbers.
Barbara says her biggest challenge is probably one lots of us face -- getting out of her head and into her heart and spirit. While I'm a big fan of brainpower, I have also learned over these last 10 years as an MT that "thinking" can only take you so far. If you want a practice (and life) that means more than just moving from one day to the next, you've got to connect to the Universe and that isn't going to happen through your head. That happens through your heart.
Barbara learned that when she jumped out of bed in the morning and ran right into her day, she was living in her head. She has since developed the habit of spending 15-30 minutes first thing in the morning settling into her heart and spirit.
It's sooooooo easy when we're trying to deal with the business aspects of our practice to default to "brain". Isn't that where savvy business people live? Isn't getting ahead in business a function of being really smart?
It helps. But I agree wholeheartedly with Barbara that it's not the primary vehicle to get where most of us really want to go. We've got to operate from our soul / heart / Spirit.
Which means (with apologies to my former student) we've got to set our intentions.
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