I have so many things that I want to do in my life. In fact, I not only want to do them, I actually intend to do them. With 100% certainty I know that they are things that will move me forward personally, professionally, or as a Dad. They are positive steps towards a better me. No question about it. I’ve dutifully written these items down and started on the journey to make them a part of my life. But…life keeps getting in the way and my past is paved with good intentions that haven’t come to fruition.

The biggest part of the problem is that I keep focusing my attention on items with much shorter horizons. It seems that I get up in the morning with my three absolutes that I need to get done, a theme for the day, and a list of tasks that fit that theme. Occasionally one or more are targeted at the future, but most of the time I’m parceling my attention among tasks that are only impactful in the short-term.

You see, I have these great intentions that don’t seem to get enough of my attention. My knee-jerk reaction to this state of affairs is that I’m busy. My life is Hectic. My family is a chaotic mess that needs constant, immediate, attention. But honestly, that’s a cop-out. Everybody is busy. Some busier than others, many busier than me. Frankly, I’m probably somewhere in the middle of busy-ness. I do a great job spinning the yarns of my life, exposing the craziness that is the Hectic Family with eloquent prose that makes everyone marvel at the wonder that is our life. It’s the storytelling that is compelling, dramatic, and interesting. Honestly, our lives are as mundane as yours. Sure, with eight kids we may have a few more dynamic situations, but we’re not that busy. I just like to talk and write about it, verbally patting myself on the back for being so good at running our household. Oftentimes I hold myself up as an example of how to do things right.

But things aren’t right.

I’m OK at keeping us moving forwards. I’m not fantastic, amazing, or spectacular at that job. I’m just OK. So many things fall through the cracks around here that it’s amazing that anything actually doesn’t! That’s what got me thinking about intention and attention. That and several podcasts that I listened to on the drives back and forth to Colorado over the past month. Twenty-eight hours behind the wheel gives you time to listen and think. And I took full advantage. I listened to several podcast episodes from half-a-dozen podcasts that talked about intention vs. attention. Sure, some of them called it focus. Some called it willpower. But the underlying message was the same: If you don’t put your attention towards your intentions, then you’ll just keep spinning the wheel in place like the proverbial hamster in a wheel. The poor little guy is running in the wheel, but the wheel is mounted in place. He’s mistaking activity for progress.

So, as the miles piled up on the odometer of my car, I came to the realization that I need to take some time and focus on the longer term. I need to not only write my intentions down, but I need to put in specific times for attention to those intentions. Thus, for the second half of August I’m going to be spending more time planning where I want to go. Then I’m going to spend some time figuring out how to make sure that I’m accountable towards those intentions.

I need to get out of the hamster wheel of day-to-day activities and start moving towards actual progress in my life. I have all the tools, I just need to implement them. Rather than simply looking at the road immediately in front of me, I’m going to pick my head up more often and look further out…making sure that I’m really headed in the right direction.

It’s been quite a while that I’ve neglected the future for the present. It’s time to spend a bit more time putting my attention where my intentions are.