Happy Father’s Day! Celebrating all of the dad-figures, both biological and metaphorically out there! Leadership is one thing that reminds me of “dad”!  Now, let’s get to the Sunday Intentions: 

As always, we start off with a quote that helps support today’s lesson. Today is slighted toward my “weakness” but I hope it can help you today as well.

You are who you are. And there are some really powerful things you just shouldn't need to feel like you have to stick your nose in. Don't feel bad- get intentional instead!

“If you try to please all, you please none.”

— Aesop

Intentionality is crucial for us to become more thoughtful, compassionate, and caring leaders of businesses and in touch with our ethics - we are taking action on what our heart is guiding us to do. We truly help people and lead them into something BETTER that they can experience in their lives!

For you newcomers, welcome! Here’s where these Sunday intentions come from:

Each Saturday, although my alarm is turned off, black-out curtains are sealing every crack of light in our quaint 800 sq. foot Chicago apartment, something really powerful wakes me up.

But something rips me out of bed every morning that isn’t a chime, chirp, or blinding light. It’s my brain. It wakes up at the same time every morning and just rushes my frontal cortex with ideas. 

After a week-long of creating content, meeting with my clients, problem-solving social media strategies, and networking with new leaders - I still want to live out my mission further with ways to make the world a better place. Starting with the intentions we set for ourselves. 

I feel like being intentional & aware of who we are, what we are capable of becoming, and how we can really turn dreams into reality gives us a sense of control. As an enneagram 8w7, control is not a bad thing, it’s the way I see the world.

I tighten things up out of all of my reflective thoughts to polish up a key takeaway for you to receive at the same time, same day, or every week. Sunday Intentions. 

Why do we create intentions?

Take a few minutes to read this & instill “intentionality” into your life.

Running a business and leading an idea-generating role, you may always be looking to do MORE MORE MORE, which can take us on the fastest route to get confused, overwhelmed, & can lose sight of the purpose we are on this planet.

Before kicking off the Monday rush of all of the distractions and figure out why you are starting the week- practice answering these questions:

• What is my real purpose in being a CEO?

• Who am I truly serving?

• What can I teach, lead, or inspire?

• What does all of this work, time, and effort really stand for at the end of this journey?

This is important for me to share with you because life gets confusing when we surround ourselves with the external world around us. 

This week’s intention: Everything we do can be Intentional or it flops. 

I’m going to be vulnerable- as I often do in these weekly excerpts- about where I messed up big time. 

On Friday of this past week, I hosted my very first meetup for the Your Ethical Business Group. I was pressured by someone that I SHOULD make this a political conversation around current events. I’m not a leader in political discussion, mind you. Not at the very least! Also, I have tendencies to be a people pleaser (my enneagram type 7 trait) which wanted to make everyone have a good time & make it look like their time was well spent.

As an honest reflection to you- the meeting had WAY too much going on and this meeting was not at all what I had intended originally. Getting to know one another for the very first time in-person (on Zoom), introducing our businesses, and then answering 3 discussion questions around racism and Juneteenth. 

That person didn’t even show up, which I thought, why did I change the direction of the meeting to make it something I wasn’t trying to do?

I was trying to please someone thinking that’s what they wanted?!  I was NOT being intentional. 

Something I’m working on today with this week’s intentional reminder with you. We all mess up sometimes- but we learn and spending time to get intentional helps us resurface those amazing life lessons we sometimes forget. 

Here’s where Intentionality gives me that level of control to make things better

For the next meet up, I am intentional space for ethical leaders to create a new level of pressure-less discussion around how they navigate the challenging conversations they have with their clients, their community and their peers about doing the most challenging thing- the ethical & unpopular thing at times. It’s a really big weight to carry on our shoulders. Interested in joining? Your Ethical Business awaits you!

I know that I was doing my best to show up as a light on the Juneteenth topic, but I could have been intentional about incorporating a speaker, while I was the host of the meeting. 

I just wanted to demonstrate a real-life example of how important setting intentions are! 

For this week, I hope that you find something HUGE you are launching, teaching, speaking about, or a meeting with a client you may have to get even more intentional. Find out what you really want out of the experience and design it accordingly! 

This week’s Intention: 

There is a reason I am in the driver's seat of my business & the voice of my movement. I sometimes have a tendency to give in and not always live out my leadership as fully as I'd like to. This week, I intend to be mindful of what my default weaknesses are, but not let them overpower me!

Thank you again for yet another week of letting me uplift the way you start your week by reminding you to be a little more intentional today than you were yesterday. 

Have a fantastic summer solstice week,

Dana

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SUNDAY INTENTIONS
Each Sunday, I kick-off an intention-setting email to get centered on how to show up for the week as the world as a leader of your movement!

Welcome to Sunday Intentions. With the world challenging us in so many ways as individuals, we have a powerful choice to make for ourselves everyday that begins with stating an intention. 

This Week’s Intention:
I will be intentional about how I feel in the world as a single, individual person before associating myself with the outside world & biases. I will ask myself what all of this means for me, to me, and what I am willing to do to take action about the way that I feel.

The world has changed- forever. What have you noticed? What was the biggest change you’ve seen in your life and in the lives of others? How has the progression & activism in all of these movements touched you, personally?

As I try to continue to be open minded, but very vocal and active with how I feel and what I am doing to lead, I invite you to not shame yourself for where you are. Instead, assess what you are feeling and what you are willing to do about the way you feel. Stay authentic and tap into your greater purpose here.

“The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.”

— Albert Camus

For me, I’ve dove into a new category of personal work around the topic of racism. Tears, emotions, and so much pain is not even adequate enough to talk about with what our African American neighbors, friends, coworkers, colleagues, family members, & community members have experienced firsthand. What I have experienced could never yet be accepted as “understanding” - but I’m willing to make a start. It has been a huge intention of mine to stay quiet about imposing my thoughts, feelings and ideas and instead, do the work to try to understand as much as I can. 

Some of this work has been posting resources or questions vocally & publicly on social media for all friends, family, and business clients & colleagues to see, but the true powerful work has been individually donating, reading, watching movies/ documentaries, listening to podcasts, asking more questions, doing abundant amounts of researching, having 1 on 1 zoom, phone, or in-person discussions with other perspectives. 

I believe the concept of racism starts to really shift starting with what we are doing as individuals and then growing it outward. We have to come from an intentional place of understanding. This is only the beginning for me in efforts to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and to seek new conversations that I’m having that once had been very difficult to have felt like progress in a small, yet impactful way. We still have so far of a journey ahead. 

If you have felt one way or another, I just want you to understand how you feel and get closer to it, but I don’t also want to impose myself or my beliefs onto you or others. This is all of our world, I just hope you get more intentional with how you approach these things.