Andy Stanley said, "It is direction, not intention, that determines destination." Of course he is right. A few weeks ago I went to a super successful friend for as Zig Ziglar says, "A check up from the neck up." He used a series of questions loosely based on Stanleys' three words.
My friend said, "Answer in your mind, do not answer me." Ok.
• "What is your intention? To go. To do. To become?"
• "Are you currently progressing in the direction of your intention?"
• "How much closer to your stated destination are you than you were at this time last year? You do recall Twains' statement on this, 'You may be on the right track, but if you just sit there, you'll get run over by a train.'"
• "Do you fully understand that your destination is determined more by your direction than by your intention?"
A long pause was given between these murderously tough questions.
My mentor reminded me that he had not asked about my intentions, but my intention. He was referring to laser like focus. The art of wrapping the "many things" under the heading of one intention takes time and thought but it is time and thought well spent.
Paul had this principle in mind when he wrote Philippians 3:13: "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,"
