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Article 3 of 7: Reason Three – Enhances Meaning and Purpose
This is the third article in a series of seven reasons why science validates you ought to focus on Applied Positive Intentions because they can help you live an even more meaningful, flourishing and prosperous professional and personal life. In this article we focus on how applied positive intentions enhance meaning and purpose.
If you missed the previous articles, you can read them here.
Just to remind you, an intention is one thing, but taking action to fulfill or live up to your positive intention to make life better for others in your professional and personal life, is what creates the more powerful Applied Positive Intention.
Here are the 7 evidence-based reasons why you ought to understand and act on Applied Positive Intentions:
- Increases Self-Determination
- Develops Trust
- Enhances Meaning and Purpose
- Builds Positivity
- Increases Goal Achievement
- Encourages Curiosity and Learning
- Develops Clarity, Agility and Resilience
In the previous articles we’ve examined how Applied Positive Intentions increase self-determination and develop trust. In this article we explore how Applied Positive Intentions enhance meaning and purpose.
Enhances Meaning and Purpose:
Many positive psychology researchers, for example Michael Steger and Paul Wong, have been exploring the positive impact a person’s sense of meaning in life can have on their overall well-being and life satisfaction.
One of the core elements that help to develop a person’s sense of meaning in life is through their relationships.
As mentioned in the first article in this series, a person’s sense of relatedness (their belief they have positive and nurturing relationships in their lives) is one of the three key elements that impact a person’s sense of self-determination. The other two are their sense of autonomy and their sense of competence.
You may have already started to realise these seven evidence-based reasons why you ought to understand and act on Applied Positive Intentions, are very much interconnected.
Meaning in life is not the same as meaning of life.
We as humans are meaning-makers. While the question of what is the meaning ‘of’ life is far beyond the scope of this article, how we discover meaning ‘in’ our life is well within everyone of our reaches.
We draw our own sense of meaning from our life experiences. When we are in positive and nurturing relationships, research shows we draw a higher sense of meaning in our life.
This higher sense of meaning is, as mentioned previously, a key contributor to our overall sense of well-being, and ignites our capacity to live more flourishing, meaningful and prosperous lives.
Choosing to live our professional and personal lives with Applied Positive Intentions helps us focus on relationships. It focuses us on taking action on positive things we want to help others think, feel, experience or have in both our professional and personal lives.
As outlined in the second article in this series, this focus on relationships boosts our confidence for self-trust, our courage to trust others and our combined competence and character to earn others’ trust.
This focus on relationships that is achieved through Applied Positive Intentions, pattern interrupts all the other noise and distraction in our world, and helps us to gain more meaning in our lives – meaning that is derived from our relationships – relationships that are built on trust – trust that is enhanced through our sense of self-determination.
Again, the message is clear for every corporate leader.
Coach and guide your employees to write out positive intention statements for their customers and regularly report back on how they are living up to their positive customer intentions and you will, as outlined in the first article in this series, boost the level of self-determination in your people.
In addition, as explained in this article, this simple practice of Applied Positive Intentions for customers and work colleagues, will help boost your individual, group and organisational trust, because people will be focused on how they can live up to their positive intentions for others.
The fourth article in this series will cover how science validates Applied Positive Intentions helps to build positivity in our professional and personal lives.
