Check if Your Behavior Matches Your Intent

I like to feel calm at night. It is a great feeling — calmness. However, if I take prescription drugs to feel calm, then it is a different thing. This calmness becomes a bad thing. The outcome is nice but the behavior might become a little dangerous.

According to another fellow prophet of mine, the Bible says whatsoever a man sowed that what you also shall reap. The Bible says love thy neighbor as thy self and also the Bible said noble man hated their own self. This is why we got to learn to love individual as we love ourselves because whatever we want, whatever I make, God will allow it to happen to me. So if I bring the good to you, guess what, good is coming to me. If I build rickets around you, guess what, the rickets is coming to me. But if I build harm to bring harm to you, harm will come to me. Why? Because whatever I do to you, I do to me.

Understand Your Intent

One of the ways to bring about optimum integration between the attitude/behavior and the intention is through the Word of God. Since the change is from within, from the heart and mind, then the rest follows. Studying the Word of God is a powerful tool in terms of integrating intention and behavior.

It is not always easy. Integration is a process. It does not happen overnight. Energy and commitment is needed because it may require a change in behavior or attitude. At some level, the behavior is “positively intended”. It is more productive to respond to the intention, rather than the expression of problematic behavior.

Steps of Integration

The first step to integration is to focus on defining the unproductive behavior by means of defining the intent. There is a need to be clear as to why the behavior is not useful. There is a need to identify the intent and do or become through the negative behavior or attitude.

In order to achieve integration, one needs to determine the positive intentions behind the current behavior and the behavior that you want to achieve or the attitude that you want to exhibit. Once we understand what the positive intent is, we can have a form of “wiggle room” to change the behavior. For example, if you bite your nails because you want a feeling of safety. You will not go against the intention to feel safe. However, if you start out with the intention, “from now on your nails will be perfectly even”, there will be some resistance in the process. The appearance of the nails is not really a concern in the intention.

Intentions define the behaviors we do. In order for us to understand behavior, we look at the intentions behind them. Negative behaviors can be caused by positive intentions. In order to improve behavior, one needs to determine positive behaviors that can reach the same intent. Well-formed outcomes are formed from identifying positive intentions.

Some Thoughts to Ponder Over

These are basic steps for integrating behavior and intention. Ask them to select a behavior for transformation. Identify the intentions behind those behaviors. Identify the related outcomes. Plan towards those outcomes. Try implementing the plan. Evaluate if you are integrating the intentions and behaviors properly.