Dreams to Intentions

I start off 2009 full of dreams and fears and hopes and desires. As I sit at my computer, I realize that I start off every year this way - full of the dreams or the fears but no plan. I have no intentions, just ambiguous lists of some-day-maybes.

I sat down yesterday, after a long 20 hour consulting job developing a first run at a project plan for an IT implementation, and thought about what makes good projects work. They are full of goals, deadlines, check points and dependencies (interconnections). Activities are assigned to specific people who are then accountable for the results of the work. But the plan is not enough. The plan is only a piece of paper. What makes it work are the intentions behind it. Those commitments and agreements to move the plan forward until it is completed.

I used to make plans like this for the projects I worked on at my former place of employment. They were simple plans. But they were like a compass. They kept me on course. And when in doubt, they helped me tease out what my next step should be. They also helped me to determine when I was being successful.

I'm not a huge fan of MS Project and huge project plans. But I was a fan of having a map of sorts. So this year, instead of dreaming and wishing and hoping, I am going to take my dreams, pick the few most important, and create some intentions around them. Dream. Plan. Act.

The first step is to dream. I'm going to take this week to dream about what I want to do. What I really want to do, not about what others what me to do or what I think I should do. And because intentions are more powerful if they are publicly declared, I am going to share those dreams, plans and actions with you.

Join me on this journey! And maybe start a little journey of your own.