Thinking About Thinking, Intent, and Action

Thinking About Thinking, Intent, and Action
A deep, deep dive into where intent can take you.

#thesnipermind

Originally shared by David Amerland

Intent

Intent, the Cambridge online dictionary tells us, is all about where we direct our attention (https://goo.gl/smQ28t). Attention we know, from The Sniper Mind once directed, changes everything:
http://bit.ly/2F1hy7Z.

In this remarkably short formula for change we have a world of complexity that defines the problems we consider to be part of the human condition: https://goo.gl/KEH1jb. How, for instance, do we accurately gauge intent when what is often vocally professed is different from what is signified or, indeed, effected by one’s actions? - https://goo.gl/3Wkk3y. Even more complicated, at a personal level, where we are accountable only to ourselves, why do we often fail to bridge the gap between intention and action? - https://goo.gl/7jCuKr.

Psychologists actively studying this area know that when looking at it we see in intent and action (or the lack of action) both a theory of mind (https://goo.gl/9IoHav) and what they call “naïve psychology of action” - https://goo.gl/1zhcFi where our interpretation of what is happening or fails to happen is either too circumscribed or too linear to truly reflect the underlying complexity of thought that gives rise to it all.

There are a few easy questions here to tackle. The obvious one is: why? Why is this happening at all? Why can’t we mean what we say and say what we mean? (https://goo.gl/KwFkGF). Consider, how the relatively simple concept of reciprocity in community engagement (and by association, society-building) is itself bound in the exhibition or lack of directness in our communication: https://goo.gl/Y4meDr. Even more tellingly, consider how the very “human condition” we are all subject to which inevitably governs everything we do is subject to much debate: https://goo.gl/5x4TH8.

There is an inherent uncertainty in our cognitive life that makes us question ourselves first and then everything else afterwards: https://goo.gl/3nqiA9. While that may make us human it also makes us uncertain, fearful, indecisive and, at times, directionless and maybe a little lost. As a matter of fact our entire journey in life is one of self discovery where we struggle to get to the point where we feel comfortable in our skin and live in certainty of our decision making.

You know by now that I am leading to The Sniper Mind (https://goo.gl/N5mXxN) which inadvertently has become a manual for living a more intentional life. But it didn’t start out that way. It was, for me, a first step into solving a puzzle: how do snipers think so clearly under such intense pressure? - https://goo.gl/c4Lhrf. I felt that if I could get just some pointers which I could apply to my own thinking (and share them with others) it would have been a win.

In the process the book became something else. It became a journey on how we can learn to shape the limited resources we have in emotional and physical and psychological energy to actually achieve what we set out to do? It’s a manual on not how much to overcome the human condition as to learn how to direct it. As such it has a wider applicability that touches upon every aspect of human behavior, including business: http://bit.ly/2Bt8sAa.

In considering intent (and intention) we cannot but also think about volition (https://goo.gl/7EcUi3) and we then get on the seemingly slippery slope of whether there is or not any free will at all: https://goo.gl/8q8ZtJ. Decision theory (https://goo.gl/KGjrJH) suggests that we have more control over our actions than determinists would like to assign to us (https://goo.gl/jnx9UQ).

In considering our intent and our actions (and how responsible we are for each) we seek no less to understand whether we are good or bad people. And letters to Santa notwithstanding, the outcome of that syllogism defines decisions, choices and actions that lead to the social world we experience: https://goo.gl/NPF1VC.

There is an intricate interweaving here of other concepts such as what we consider to be real (https://goo.gl/gqg84K) how do we know that something is true (https://goo.gl/YgL2Vq) and how do we know that we actually know something (https://goo.gl/HU69SU) and are not just fooling ourselves through our own personal beliefs in what’s know as the Gettier Problem: https://goo.gl/fVNtz7.

The fundamental basis of all this is our own sense of identity, values and beliefs. If all this sounds deep and complicated it’s because it is. We are unique in our ability for introspection and we live in times where even something as simple as a lie said by someone in authority needs us to now define exactly what lying is: https://goo.gl/XMbb8y and whether there are socially acceptable lies and their opposite.

Complexity is the new normal. The 21st century demands that we understand at least the fundamentals of our inner world (https://goo.gl/jcMknc) if we are to stand a chance to adapt and overcome the enormous challenges that we are facing in this brand new century of ours.

I know you did not make the decision to stock up on coffee and donuts, croissants and cookies, chocolate cake and ice-cream lightly (https://goo.gl/vfmfeP). At the very least it all marks Sunday off as a special day but, at the same time, it’s something that makes us feel good as we dive into the maelstrom that’s our inner mind and hope we come out the other side with the belief that we are good people, intact. Have an awesome Sunday wherever you are.