Everyone knows that success in life is a function of your “intention.”  Right?

I just read an excellent blog post by Joe Vitale (http://blog.mrfire.com/why-i-gave-up-intentions) that challenges this point of view.  Joe’s perspective makes a lot of sense to me and, because New Year’s Resolutions are usually all about our intentions, I thought I would use my first blog post of the new year to take a fresh look at this topic.

Joe questions the value of intention

Joe makes this point: “Today I realize that most intentions are limitations. Intentions come from your ego and can actually limit what is possible for you to receive.”

He goes on to explain:

STAGE ONE:

In the first stage you are a victim. We’re all born into it and most of us stay there. With coaching or the right books or the right movies, you one day break free.

STAGE TWO:

In the next stage you realize you have more power than you ever thought before. In this stage intentions are fun and exciting and useful. You aim your life where you want it to go. It’s exhilarating to manifest things like new cars or a new house or anything else you can imagine.

But there’s a stage after that.

STAGE THREE:

In the third stage you realize you have choice but you don’t have control. You realize you don’t have all power. This is where you surrender. This is where you can receive inspiration from something greater than your ego awareness.

I was filmed for two more movies last week. One of them is all about letting go to inspiration.

For me, I want inspiration.

When it comes, that becomes my new intention.

But the intention comes from inspiration, not from limitation.

The intention comes from the Divine, not my pipsqueak ego.

In short, when I receive an inspiration to do something, it becomes my intention.

So I still believe in intentions, but not those of the ego, but those of the Divine.

A distinction between intention and inspiration

Joe made an important distinction between inspiration, which comes from who we really are (the “creator”) and intention, which comes from who we think we are (the ego, the “creation”).

Because our creation is pretty much run by our already-existing beliefs and conditionings, our intentions are not really freely chosen.   Our intentions are determined by our past, or, to be more precise, the meaning we gave past experiences.  In other words, our intentions are limited by our beliefs.  We can’t intend to achieve more than our beliefs will allow.

Inspirations, on the other hand, are created out of nothing. Inspirations don’t depend on anything and they are not limited by our beliefs.

If you were asked: What is the source of any goal you might have—and you explain why you have the goal, you probably have an intention that is a function of your beliefs.  If your answer is, “just because” or “why not” or “just because I said so,” you probably have an inspiration that was created independent of your beliefs.

As soon as I realized the power of The Lefkoe Method (TLM) about 25 years ago to make a profound difference in the world, I said to myself: I intend to spend the rest of my life using TLM to make a difference in as many lives as possible.  A worthwhile intention, isn’t it?

But when I first created this intention about 25 years ago it mattered to me.  I used it to define who I was.  It became my identity.  I had to do it.  It was a better way to spend my time than how most other people spent their time.  The world needed what I had to offer.

My intention became an inspiration

And then about 10 years ago there was a shift from: I need to do it, to: I choose to do it. And I would be okay if I didn’t do it. The world didn’t need me; it would be okay without me.

My intention had shifted to inspiration and it no longer defined who I was.  My ego was no longer involved.

I’ve actually been thinking about what to do with the rest of my life (I’m now 73 years old) during the past two weeks while I was on vacation in Hawaii with Shelly and my two daughters.

On the one hand I felt I could stay on vacation for the rest of my life. Either my associates or I have worked one-on-one with well over 13,000 clients and over 70,000 people have used an online and/or a DVD program to eliminate at least one belief.  Most of these people experienced a freedom that they had never experienced before.  One of my daughters pointed out that very few people in history had helped so many people.  I felt that was okay to stop.

On the other hand I felt excited about getting back to work. I was looking forward to implementing the many ideas I have for 2011, including a way to reach a few hundred thousand more people in 2011, leading a new occurring course, and  creating several new products.

After weighing each possibility, I choose to go back to work.  I don’t need to help people for ego reasons.  I am okay whether I continue to make The Lefkoe Method available in the world or not.  However, for me this is still the best game in town and I am interested in playing for at least one more year.

 

Look at your own intentions

Take a look at your intentions for 2011 and see if they are freely chosen or not.  Are they something you are choosing to do or something you need to do to be okay?

If you discover that the source of your intentions is your beliefs, get rid of any negative self-esteem beliefs so that you realize you are okay just the way you are and that you don’t need to do anything to be okay.  Make sure you get rid of any survival strategy beliefs, so that your sense of okayness is not dependent on anything outside yourself.  Do the Who Am I Really? Process and experience that you are the creator of your life, not a creation.

Allow yourself to ruminate about the question:  What do I want to do with my life, just because I want to do it—not because of what it means about me or because of what others will think?

When you discover what you choose to do, not what you need to do, what you would do even if no one else ever knew that you did it, you are probably in touch with divine inspiration, rather than ego-driven intention.  At that point the universe likely will support you in manifesting your inspiration in the world.

Please share below your thoughts and questions on living out of inspiration versus intention.

These weekly blog posts also exist as podcasts.  Sign up for the RSS feed or at iTunes to get the podcasts sent to you weekly.

If you haven’t yet eliminated at least one of your limiting self-esteem beliefs using the Lefkoe Belief Process, go to htp://www.recreateyourlife.com/free where you can eliminate one negative belief free.

To purchase a DVD program that I guarantee to help you significantly improve your confidence and also eliminate the major day-to-day problems that most people face, check out http://recreateyourlife.com/naturalconfidence.

copyright © 2011 Morty Lefkoe

18 Comments

  1. Don Ridzuan January 9, 2011 at 9:18 pm - Reply

    Hi Morty.

    I hope to someday be an Inspirational Coach as I recently found out that I am a seeker of inspirational divine.I am blessed in many ways to see the light which was all the time right under my nose.
    I pray that one I will be able to do the things you do for so many people and yes blessings be upon you.
    Keep sharing as I will to and appreciate the moment we truly have.

    Best regards
    Aloha

  2. Joonas Turpeinen January 5, 2011 at 12:15 pm - Reply

    Hi Morty!
    Happy New Year from me too! I’ve been reading/watching stuff that is supposed help me analyse about how to spark attraction in a woman and one idea I got is that we as men are supposed to want women but not need women . (Of course for married men or men who are in a relationship it is a bit different. ) And I see that probably that need comes from ego (i’m not exactly sure what it means but I guess has something to do with idea who I am to outside world) then it would be like saying that I need a woman to be acknowledged as a man and not giving that acknowledgement for my self.

  3. Geoff January 5, 2011 at 11:18 am - Reply

    How can one ever not need money, or livelihood?
    Is life always so Platonic and grand that we don’t need to eat?
    How many of us are at a place where we can just dwell on exclusively spending our time doing what we choose?
    There are certain basic realities to the world – few indeed can transcend working for a paycheck, to put food on the table. And the best part is, there’s nothing wrong with that – it can be as noble and idealistic as the empyrean heights of individuality and achievement.

  4. Chris M. Carmichael January 5, 2011 at 9:25 am - Reply

    Morty, I don’t have time this morning to say all I’d like to, but I wanted to leave a note to tell you how inspiring and helpful your blog posts are. I appreciate the insights and open discussion so much.
    Thank you, Chris

  5. Leila January 5, 2011 at 8:57 am - Reply

    Hi Morty, I really enjoyed your post – thanks a lot. At the moment I am engaged in two big projects that I’m loving. No one knows (well just my closest) and it’s a great way to get things going I think. I would never have thought of it as the difference between ego and the divine or intention and inspiration.
    Good luck for 2011.

  6. Renee Maxfield January 5, 2011 at 8:42 am - Reply

    Morty – The timing of your post couldn’t have been more perfect – I’m at a transition point in life, examining where I wish to put my time and energy. I’ve been struggling with the various options I have – I now realize that they were all of the choices were derived from intention rather than inspiration (there’s a very close parallel to the decision you were making about whether to continue your work or not). The distinction between intention and inspiration is very helpful! I now see how my choice could be made out of inspiration and how much more powerful that decision would be – you don’t have to force effort when it is derived from inspiration – you can’t stop yourself from acting when you choice is inspired. Thank you for all of your work – it’s had a tremendous impact on my life. Happy New Years!!

  7. Elizabeth Russell January 5, 2011 at 7:36 am - Reply

    I get the importance of what you are saying.

    In my own experience, however, I notice that inspirations can be affected by other inner things. Sometimes my original inspirations turn into intentions and somehow become “duties” and lose their fun…
    I can’t figure out why this happens to them. The original excitement evaporates.
    Can you say something about this?

    • Lauren January 5, 2011 at 11:44 am - Reply

      I just read your post, Elizabeth, and I, too, struggled with turning my love of writing into something I could get out into the world. I believe the “inner things” you refer to are the limiting beliefs that hold you back or in your words “turn into intentions and become duties.” Have you tried Morty’s free belief eliminator? Or purchased his Natural Confidence program? Eliminating those beliefs truly let me see my writing as something I want to do. Hope this helps.
      Love and Light,
      Lauren

  8. Joseph January 5, 2011 at 7:27 am - Reply

    I really liked the ideas expressed in this blog post. It’s amazing to me how much our ego seems to muck things up, but I understand it has its purpose. I feel inspired to share with you something that I have struggled with for a long time. I really look up to people like you, Anthony Robbins, Deepok Chopra, Joe Vitale, etc. The problem that I invariable find is that all of you wonderful people seem to want to profit from the amazing things that you have remembered/discovered/thought up (don’t get me wrong I understand making a living), but if you wanted to really have an amazing end to an amazing life, why not decide to give your information away for free (I understand all of the psychological tricks that go along with charging money)? I think that you have had a really good run, for a long time, and if you were to give away all of your courses, programs, audio, video, etc. for free it could truly touch the lives of millions of people. And you could transition to an advertising/affiliate profit system. Turn your site into a blog, give away all of your stuff, put ads on your site, and recommend products that others offer that you believe in (as an affiliate). This is how you can truly share what you have learned and make the last years of your life the most productive you have ever had. Thanks for reading this!

    • chinajackie January 5, 2011 at 6:59 pm - Reply

      Hi Joe,

      I have the same kind of puzzle as yours. Currently I am running a course for Chinese children, teaching them English, math, science and self-growth related topic. That is something I really enjoyed ( inspiration not intention ). This is a charged course with many children queue up out there waiting for vacancy. But what I really want to do is to give it for free, not because that I already have a good life without the profit, but I just feel like doing it this way. I also want to upload my course on the internet for free. I really want to know if there are some other secrets behind about making profit out of something you know from people I look up to like Morty and Eckhart Tolle. Am I doing the right thing?

      • Joseph January 5, 2011 at 7:42 pm - Reply

        Giving away your content is fairly easy and straightforward, the hard part is figuring out how to still make a profit. I think two of the best ways are through advertising and affiliate sales. So for example, you set up a website, lets say a blog. And in your blog you share all of the information with anyone. Now, how do you make money? On your blog you place advertisements (Google AdSense, etc). When people who are looking at your blog click on any of the advertisements you make a small profit. Another way is to find products that meet the needs of your target market and sign up to become an affiliate, or contact them to arrange a special deal for anyone you refer, and when one of the people on your blog goes to their website and purchases the product you make a commission. These are the two easiest and most widely used methods of making money from giving information away for free online. I hope this helps.

    • jackie January 12, 2011 at 12:27 am - Reply

      Hi Joseph,

      Thanks for your reply to my comment. It really helps.Thanks a lot. Wish you great success in life in 2011!

  9. Alex January 5, 2011 at 5:21 am - Reply

    This post made me realize that, despite all my goals… the things in life that fulfill me are the simplest, and I don’t need to be rich or do anything extraordinary to experience them.

    Morty, I can honestly say that you are one of the few people who have made a significant impact in my life. Thank you.

  10. Alessandra January 5, 2011 at 4:04 am - Reply

    It’s amazing, I just needed this now!

  11. Lauren January 4, 2011 at 7:51 pm - Reply

    Morty,
    Thank you for this timely article! I’ve been working on a list of “committments” for 2011 and I am grateful for your input on what we’re driven by. And Joe Vitale.
    Like a lot of people, I’ve “resoloved” to lose weight, make more money, remodel my house, etc. I realize that the most important resolution is writing and publishing what I create. Not out of a sense of what my creation wants, rather what myself as creator wants. I love to write poetry and I am eager to learn as much as I can about the craft of writing. Because I enjoy it so much. As for the other resolutions, I just…want to.
    A few years ago, I was visiting with my mother and I wondered why about something….don’t remember what it was. She said, “Why do you want to know why?” For a moment, I didn’t say anything, then I said, “Because I want to.” Before the Natural Confidence program and the Occurring Course, I always felt like I had to prove everything I said and why I was interested in different things. Now I know I can be and do what I choose because I want to do those things. Instead of operating from the view of “fixing” something, I can do it from inspiration. And I can set my intentions from love instead of limitation.
    Love and Light in the coming year,
    Lauren

    • Morty Lefkoe January 4, 2011 at 8:24 pm - Reply

      HiLauren,

      I’m thrilled that the Occurring Course and the NC program have made such a profound difference in your life. Your stories always give me “inspiration” to keep going.

      Love, Morty

  12. Rick January 4, 2011 at 7:50 pm - Reply

    Morty,

    Happy New Year! Thank you for a great post, the great information you provide and for being a ‘giver’. Many years ago I participated in a program that helped identify my vision… in that course my inspiration was to be a ‘man of influence’ just like you…

    I also think your message and method is needed by people today during these very uncertain times. Your words give me inspiration to continue my influential journey this year and the years to come and who knows… maybe I can be the one to carry on the torch…

    All the best to you and Shelly,

    Rick Gomez MBA
    aka ‘Man Of Influence’

    • Morty Lefkoe January 4, 2011 at 8:22 pm - Reply

      Hi Rick,

      I’m glad I am an inspiration to you.

      And anything you can do to get people to try the free belief and find out about our work is appreciated.

      Thanks for taking the time to post.

      Love, Morty

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