Hello!

Thank you for continuing to stay on as a subscriber to my newsletter. I hope you're doing well and staying safe whichever part of the world you are in.

Lately, I’ve been thinking on whether a person or a group having good intentions is enough, especially when those good intentions don’t always have good consequences.

I have loads of good intentions – I want to exercise daily, I want to paint regularly, I want to write everyday, I want to work towards publishing a book….on and on it goes.

And naturally, I had every intention of sending out this newsletter twice a month like I promised in the one I sent out early January, but it didn't happen. Sadly, we were dealing with a very ill dog. Our Pablo passed on 31st January after almost a month long illness. But that's not an excuse. I have been writing on my blog and other places right through this. Which is why I've been thinking about 'good intentions'.

Good Intentions, But.....

Remember, that saying, ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’?

One classic example of a good intention gone wrong was when Asian carp was introduced into American waters to keep them clean. What was not anticipated is that these fish are so aggressive that they began to feed upon the native fish species, threatened the ecosystem and grew so big that they jumped up in the waters causing boating accidents!

Let’s think about something that happens to us almost on a daily basis in India. We stop at a traffic signal and a child or children might approach us for money. Their eyes and their bedraggled look is enough to make us feel guilty about sitting in the comfort of our car, while they have to beg for food. We want to help – a good intention. So we whip out some money and hand it over to them. What often happens is that the kids have to turn this money over to their ‘boss’ – part of a begging mafia. Have we helped the child or perpetuated a crime? Have we eased that kid’s hunger or our own guilt? I've found a work around for this. I take the child to a nearby eatery and get them food. But that's not always possible, I know.

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So our good intentions are not really quite enough are they? We must follow them with action. And for that we need discipline.

“Intention without discipline is useless.” ― Caroline Myss

One of the ways I've learned to be a little more disciplined is to follow Mel Robbin's 5 Second Rule. You can read about it in my post: The 5 Second Rule and you might be drawn to read her book or sign on for one of her courses.

I've also made some minor changes in my habits that help me be more disciplined and live more intentionally. I wrote about these in my post : Make Small Changes To Your Daily Routine.

I'd love to hear about your attempts to live a more intentional life and how you incorporate discipline into your daily life. Also, if you have ideas for this newsletter, I'd love to hear from you.

Warm regards

Corinne

PS: I have every good intention of sending the promised two newsletters in March! ;)

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