I loved this weekend’s Modern Love article in the NYT Styles section. The author had gone to see a rabbi about wanting to meet a husband. She told him about her inability to meet Mr. Right, and the rabbi told her she was cursed. He then (for a small fee), reversed the curse.
The story resonated with me. A year and a half before I got married, I saw a tarot reader about the same issue. Seeing a fortune teller was not something I’d ever done, so it felt like a leap of faith. She told me that I’d be married and pregnant with the current boyfriend within two years. The effect was wonderful. I felt so calm and could finally focus on enjoying my life and my evolving relationship. And it let my intention to marry and have a family live like a soft focus in the background.
Intention is a big thing for coaches. It’s one of the reasons we are so into visions. If you have a sense of where you are going, you have an intention. And that intention feeds all of the little choices and decisions that you make. And all of those little decisions add up to a plan, and to action. It’s not that I don’t believe in strategy and goal setting. I just believe that it all works in harmony. A cousin of mine explained that when he wanted to paint an ocean and sky landscape, he would paint his canvasses blue before beginning the image. Without that, he said, you can never achieve the color cast you are after. So intention is like that initial coat of paint. It shapes everything you do.