The 2nd foundation for becoming more Intentional is to learn how to make change happen FOR you rather than TO you. Change is a predictable process. It happens whether you are in control of it or not. When you learn the steps of change, you can Intentionally take the steps to ensure that predictable process creates predictable results for you. The first step in the process or formula is Awareness. Being aware of a change needing to be made is only the beginning of this step. Awareness of all the influencing factors that created the present situation and why it needs to change is more valuable. And, awareness of the influencing factors that could cause the change not to happen is even more valuable. Once aware of these critical factors, the acceptance step begins. Not only accepting that the change needs to happen, but accepting 100% responsibility for that change happening is the real difficult part of this step. You cannot point the finger or blame anyone else but yourself for being where you are or not being where you want to be. Accepting that will be huge and empowering. The third step is commitment. Just as in the previous step, there are two stages in this one, too. A commitment to the idea of the change is the easy part. A commitment to actions necessary to make the changes needed is the difficult part. It presupposes you have laid out a series of steps in advance you will take to make the change happen. That’s being more intentional. And even with all this, nothing has happened yet. You have been playing a mental game with yourself until you Take An Action. Take the first step–that is the hardest and most important. Once you do, the change is happening–on your terms. Awareness+Acceptance+Commitment+Action=Change.
