Intentions & Goals

The difference between intentions and goals is similar to the difference between process and product. Intentions are process, they emphasize the journey more than the destination, while goals are products, more concerned with bottom line results than how those results are achieved. Means/ends is a similar distinction. Both are important; obviously one can’t have a journey without a destination or ends without means. They must be congruent; one can’t actually achieve ‘good’ ends by ‘evil’ means, tho it often appears as if the world works this way.

Yet, the difference between intentions and goals is less clear and more subtle than the difference between process and product. I perceive intentions as goals more broadly conceived and held in an inclusive, holistic, metaphysical context, with preferences for process, means and journey included. Means and ends, journey and destination, product and process are not artificially separated with intentions. With these aspects more or less aligned in intentions, one experiences less conflict. In fact setting intentions involves taking means and ends, journey and destination, product and process into consideration, integrating them and making them congruent.

This is the both/and approach I’ve posted about before. It’s not either profit or the environment, but both profit and the environment. They need not be traded off against one another, need not be mutually exclusionary. That they so often are, points to areas of opportunity. Mutually beneficial outcomes, a world that works for everyone and everything, is possible. Either/or thinking is of the ego, the thinking of a lonely frightened entity, cut off from Source. Both/and thinking embodies connectedness and the possibility of mutually beneficial outcomes. Setting intentions embodies that kind of thinking and connectedness.