Intention

What if intention isn't about achieving—it's about being? In this episode, Lu explores the difference between intention and goals, intention and expectation, and how living with intention requires courage to let things fall apart. She shares personal examples from daily life—preparing a meal with what she already has, bowing after hot yoga in gratitude—to demonstrate how mindful frugality leads to gratitude, centeredness, and appreciation. This is about choosing direction, trusting the process, and savoring every experience as if it might be the last.

SHOW NOTES:

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Intention vs. goal: compass not map
• Intention vs. expectation: freedom vs. control
• The courage to risk: being ready for things to fall apart
• The meal: using what you have, savoring what's here
• The frugal mind is a grateful mind, a centered mind, an appreciated mind
• The hot yoga bow: gratitude for what the body allows
• The practice: three morning questions (Who do I want to BE? What can I CONTRIBUTE? What will I LET GO?)

QUOTE: "Intention makes the ordinary extraordinary."

SHARE YOUR STORY: lu@leslancreativestudio.com

NEXT EPISODE: Metamorphosis – Complete structural transformation, not just change.

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Thank you for joining this journey of openness and self-discovery. If this episode resonated, please consider subscribing and sharing with someone who might also benefit from my personal stories and insights.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Lu's first documentary: Take a Bow: The Ingrid Clarfield Story (2011)

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

What if intention isn't about achieving? What if it's about being? What if the courage to make mistakes is the only way to move forward with purpose? Welcome to Open Heart Podcast. I am Lou Leslan, your host. This is a podcast where we share ideas, stories, and questions with an open heart so we can be kinder and wiser to ourselves and each other. Every week, we'll discuss a topic where I share my observation, ideas, and questions with you, and I would love to hear your thoughts, comments, and reflections too. Please send them to Lou at LeslandCreativestudio.com. Today's topic is intention. In episode 7, we explore chaos. We learn to sit with breakdown, trust the process, and allow energy to work through the system. And I said, When you trust chaos as a functional process, you can set intentions with confidence. Not because you control the outcome, but because you trust the process to do what it's designed to do. That's where we are now, intention. Most people confuse intention with goals. Goals are about outcomes. Finish the project, grow the audience, achieve the result. Intentions are about being, how you show up, who you choose to be, how you move through the world. Goals can fail. Intentions can't. You can only drift and return. An intention isn't a destination, it's a direction. A compass, not a map. Compasses work in any terrain through chaos, through imperfection, through breakdown and rebuild. The goal says I must arrive. The intention says I choose how I travel. Here's what most people get lost. Expectation is intention wearing a disguise. It looks like intention, it sounds like intention, but underneath is control. Expectation says I need this specific outcome. Intention says I choose this direction and trust what comes. Expectations create suffering. When reality doesn't match the expectation, and it really does, we experience disappointment, frustration, resentment. Intention creates freedom. When reality diverges from the plan, intention adjusts without breaking. It reorients, it finds the new path. This is the difference between fighting the river and flowing with it. Wu Wei Water doesn't force its way downstream. It finds the natural path and moves. Intention is the water. Expectation is the dam. Here's what most people don't tell you about intention. It requires courage. Because living with intention means knowing things will fall apart, not hoping they won't, not trying to prevent it, but being ready for it. The courage to take risks, the courage to make mistakes, the willingness to let things break and trust that the breakdown is part of the process. This is the only way to move forward. Let me give you an example from my daily life. When I prepare a meal, I don't follow a rigid recipe, I don't plan every detail, I don't search for exotic ingredients I don't have. Instead, I visualize what I want, I recall the flavors I enjoy, I note what serves my body. Using what I already have, my daily staples, familiar ingredients, known flavors, I prepare the meal with one intention to fully savor the texture, the flavor, the taste. The outcome of that intention is gratitude, not excess, not overconsumption, not overspending. Just this is enough. This nourishes me. I am grateful. The frugal mind is a grateful mind. The grateful mind is a centered mind. The centered mind is an appreciated mind. Restraint creates resource. When you stop chasing novelty, you discover the depth of what you already have. When you stop consuming mindlessly, you start savoring intentionally. Using what I have already without seeking novelty is my motto for daily living. It's not deprivation, it's not scarcity thinking. It's the recognition that abundance isn't about having more, it's about being fully present with what's already here. Intention makes the ordinary extraordinary. After every hot yoga task, I take a bow. Not as formality, not as habit, as genuine gratitude to my body for allowing me to experience the feeling of well being. Because it might be my last hot yoga class. Enjoy everything around you as if it's the last experience, not with fear, with gratitude. Three questions every morning before engaging with the world. What do I want to be today? Not what do I want to achieve? Not what do I need to finish? Who do I want to be? Patient, present, generous, curious. What can I contribute today? Not what can I accumulate? Not what can I gain? What can I give that costs nothing but means everything? What will I let go of today? An expectation? A resentiment? A need to control? What can I release to follow the natural path? Just three questions every morning. Not a checklist, just a compass. Orient yourself before you begin. And when life pulls you off course, you return. Not with judgment, not with frustration. You simply begin again. Intention isn't about controlling outcomes. It's about choosing direction and trusting the process. Use what you have, savor what's here. Live as if every experience might be the last, not with fear, with gratitude. When you set intentions from this grounded place, from awareness, from woo way, from deep appreciation, you don't just change, you transform. That's where we're going next. Metamorphosis. I'd love to hear your story, thoughts, and questions. Please send them to Lou at LeslanCreative Studio dot com. Thank you for joining me for this episode of Open Heart. This is a podcast where we share ideas, stories, and questions with an open heart so we can be kinder and wiser to ourselves and each other. Take care.