Sometimes… this isn’t enough. Sometimes, you really don’t know what to do now (after your best of intentions didn’t work). Sometimes you really did have the best of intentions but it was all wrong – wrong timing, wrong expression, wrong focus… wrong. There are all sorts of semi-positive reasons that the best of intentions didn’t succeed. And there are the excuse based intentions, and the self-serving, and the … well, you get the message. When our best intentions fail or go astray is when we say we had, the best of intentions, we face – now what?
In my world, we really should start at our motivation – why our ‘intentions’ didn’t work. What were we truly trying to accomplish? If it was to manipulate others in some fashion to accept a particular action, then there is no such thing as best. In all cases and at all times, we must remember that when others are involved, they too have free will and all the attendant interference and choices. And… their ideas could be considerably better than ours. However, the issue at this point is our motivations… to do or not do (fill in the blank).
What kind of behavior did you express when presenting your best? Did you give sufficient ‘argument’ for your position and allow for others’ questions and inputs? If not, then this can be a barrier. People need to be invested or have ownership of what is ‘best’, if not you may not have the necessary support for success. How we present makes a tremendous impact on the hearing and subsequent acceptance of what we propose. If it is only self-serving then you probably should change your position and purpose quickly.
And yes,, there are other factors affecting our best of intentions, but when we are aware of our own agenda and admit this to ourselves, then we can become more open to what others are saying. It is especially important when you need the assistance of others to accomplish the goal. If your best of intentions really are the best, then any ‘failure’ is mitigated and every success is heightened. As much as we may want a different result, best of intentions may not assure success. But unless we are aware of why we are doing or wanting to do (fill in the blank) then we jeopardize success.
