Intention: A Compass and Magnet

Foundation as a universal concept is something that has fascinated me lately. 

I wasn’t totally satisfied with Google’s definition, “the lowest load-bearing part of a building; an underlying basis or principle.” It differentiated between physical and nonphysical in a way that lost meaning. That’s why I love to look at etymologies. They  get at the crux of the word, the root from which all the evolutions and distributions of the word take direction. 

“Late Middle English: from Old French fondation, from Latin fundatio(n- ), from fundare ‘to lay a base for’.”

I thought about some of the contexts in which the word is used in my life: Buildings—foundation is critical, a matter of life or death. Raising kids—critical, my mom would tell me to set a solid foundation for my kids so they can stay grounded without my micromanaging. Though in very different contexts, the fact that the same word exists in these separate places necessarily means that there’s a parallel to be explored. 

With physical structures, we understand, by witnessing an immediate undeniable truth, the consequence of a lack of foundation–the building falls. With intangible structures, we often copy-cat what is working for others and realize later (usually after the fall) that we didn’t lay a proper base. Whether we are building tangible or intangible structures, we are acting as architects—intentional about our foundation or not.  

Realizing that intention is the common place from which foundation-setters start creating any structure, tangible or intangible, has been awe-inspiring. Shocking in its simplicity: The basis of creation is intention–a creator walks firmly from it, or walks defeated back to it.

I think about how our communities and our businesses start off by way of intention too. How some outlive others and some don’t get to a tangible point past ideation. How, without intention, there's no process of creation at all. 

A clear intention acts as both a compass and a magnet. It guides decisions while attracting opportunities and resources that line up with it. As if we’re on an invisible highway, this GPS tracker keeps us oriented towards our destination. A GPS but better, because every now and then intention activates an acceleration booster where clarity of purpose meets opportunity. As if clarity removes friction and encourages speed. Intention, a GPS but better, because when there are detours or the weather changes, you’re not lost or tossed around between one idea and the other debating what next step makes sense. The clearer the intention, the easier it is to recognize what belongs on your path and what doesn’t.

A GPS but better, because intention sends a message into the future and still leaves you with the element of surprise. You actually have no idea where you’ll end up because the boosters make your growth unpredictable. 

This highway of intention is invisible and the traveler is you, not in a car, but someone trying to run a business, start a project, or a family. As the founder of whatever structure it is, defining your intention releases the code for all the opportunities and resources, the ones peculiarly aligned with what you’re building, to turn your way. Your intention is the application that runs this living, breathing, pulsing organis(m)ation, or structure. 

The only challenge is time. What makes a founder’s message resonate across time? 

Their truth. 

The impact of a clear intention isn’t time-bound when it’s grounded in truth. We see this in books and ideas that have lived for centuries, left behind by people whose message was tied to something universal, something that aligned with the human experience at its core.

Truth has a piercing quality. It cuts through the noise. It’s what connects us, aligns communities, and creates shared purpose. When a founder trusts their own experience, believes their re/action is deeply human, and has the courage to express it, their message will resonate. 

Intention has a subtle yet expansive nature. By understanding it as foundational and crafting it as carefully in intangible structures as we do tangible ones, we unlock its utility and plant resources into our future that offer us boosts… If we trust it.