Do you live your life according to generalities? Kinda? Sorta? Mostly? Or, are you living precisely as you intended?

This thought came to mind as I interacted with one of my team. We’re building some new advertising and needed to know somethings about our customer. When I asked the question I got back “probably” answers. As you might guess, I’m not interested in building advertising that sorta, kinda, generally targets who we suspect our customer to be; especially when we’ve got the information available to us. I want to know exactly. As I told him, “You fly a kite on ‘probably.” You fly an F18 on ‘precision’.”

There’s always a larger lesson in these kinds of encounters. And the larger lesson in this one—for me—had to do with how we live our lives, generally, mostly, kinda, sorta. And guess what kind of results that produces, mostly. ….Yeah, I think you are beginning to get my drift.

What if life really does give you exactly what you ask for? Exactly what you intend?

Is your intention set precisely so that you’ll achieve what you really want? Or, is it just sorta pointed in a general direction?

My belief is that we get what we ask for. There’s even a spiritual component to this. If you read the Bible you’ll find repeatedly that Jesus asked people “What do you want?”

Don’t misunderstand. I don’t think God is Santa Claus to be treated like a celestial slot machine. But there is a sense that when we set our intention in a focused way on a thing to be achieved or attained, that it then begins to show up in our life. For example, I recently decided I wanted to be more grateful and to facilitate that I bought a notebook to keep beside my bed in which I write nightly “I am grateful for…..” and my sense is that my overall gratitude has increased since I began that exercise. My historically cheery daughter has recently been downcast and gloomy with a “life sucks” attitude. Her mother bought her a notebook and every night she has to write down at least one thing that happened during the day that was positive. Guess what? She’s now discovering many more positive things. Why? Because we set her intention to find those things.

Life is to be lived in abundance. I believe that a key to that experience is deciding what we really want, and pursuing it intentionally with passion and vigor. And I’m 100%, definitely, absolutely, precisely, positive about that.

Remember, you miss 100% of the targets you never aim for.

What’s in your bulls-eye?

I’m slowly learning about the power of being grateful for every single thing that comes my way in life—in all things, giving thanks. B. J. Gallagher captured the essence of the principle when he wrote….

Any day I’m vertical is a good day . . . that’s what I always say. And I give thanks for my health.

If you ask me, “How are you?” I’ll answer, “GREAT!” because in saying so, I make it so. And I give thanks I can choose my attitude.

When Life gives me dark clouds and rain, I appreciate the moisture that brings a soft curl to my hair.

When Life gives me sunshine, I gratefully turn my face up to feel its warmth on my cheeks.

When Life brings fog, I hug my sweater around me and give thanks for the cool shroud of mystery that makes the familiar seem different and intriguing.

When Life brings snow, I dash outside to catch the first flakes on my tongue, relishing the icy miracle that is a snowflake.

Life’s events and experiences are like the weather – they come and go, no matter what my preference.

So, what the heck?! I might as well decide to enjoy them. For indeed, there IS a time for every purpose under Heaven.

Each season brings its own unique blessings . . .

. . . AND I GIVE THANKS

• The question isn’t “Did you screw up?” Of course you did! Everybody does! The question is “Did you tell me about it before it became a crisis?”
• To get what you EXPECT you have to INSPECT. Attributed to Woody Hayes from Ohio State.