Mapping Without Intent

(transcript of this episode)

Behavioral Mapping and Working Toward an Outcome

Well. Hey there. Welcome back. What was your intent in coming here? Quick story. And no, this episode is not about behavioral mapping, but I’m using that to get into the story of what the actual subject is. So the new behavioral mapping I developed and been using, I can map people forward and backward, meaning basically what I’m doing is making a visual representation of the monsters and unicorns in their lives, the seeking pleasure, the avoiding pain, the triggers, everything placed in their lives, from their childhood, from events that have happened for them having to have strength in certain situations for likes, dislikes, all that stuff. And the map is really cool because you can map from a goal backwards to see what would drive the goal, and you can see decisions you’ve made and why you made them and so forth.

But the, the meaning I almost used the word the, the way that I am supposed to use the software I created for myself is to map someone with the intention of an outcome. So in other words, someone comes to me and says, hey, I You have been struggling with this? It seems like a block, but I can’t figure out why I can’t do that. Or I want to do this thing because I think I would like it or I sure like this kind of employment, but I’m thinking of expanding. What else would I like? Or we have this team that’s not cohesive, but everyone seems to have the same ethical values and and work and all that stuff. But we seem to like, not be cohesive. So can we figure out where we’re falling apart here? But there’s a million other uses for it too. But as you heard, I always have an intent, a purpose, a meaning, a reason for doing the mapping with a person.

Discovering “Mapping Without Intent”

But I didn’t just jump into that once I established the software and filed the patent and all that good stuff, I decided to do actually more than one pilot program. And it’s been really cool. And with the pilot program, I have some people who are working through things with me and which I create the map and the four page diagnostic, and it’s really cool. But I ran into something that was a problem, but not a problem because and I called it later its own little name. I didn’t have an intent. I’m just mapping to see how things are going. I’m mapping to see how it works. So I literally ended up calling it mapping without intent, and it adjusted the way that I interview people.

It’s an hour interview or so and it’s really interesting. It’s dynamic questioning. It’s a skill that I’ve sort of learned through all of these podcast interviews that I’ve done with some really amazing people. Which allows me to follow a thread with intent to see where it’s going and why it connects to something else. And, but with the software, I wasn’t mapping with intent.

The Impact of Intent in Everyday Life

And that really made me think about that word, which I’ll use for the fifty seventh time intent. How much of a part does intent play in the things that we do every day? You hear this in conflicts. Did you intend to do that? Oh, does that make a difference? Well, yes, if you intended to do it. I’m upset at you. Oh, okay. So it’s pretty important in interpersonal relationships. Well, yeah. Did you intend to take my parking spot? No, I didn’t know it was yours. Oh, okay. Well, no, I’m not upset at you.

When people are in a conflict in court, they have the intention to prove one person wrong. One person right? You have the prosecutor and the defense. They don’t just say, let’s go to court and see who’s right. If you go to a networking event and say, I’m going to, I’m going to schmooze people and rub some elbows and stuff, that’s a different outcome than you saying. I’m going to go to the networking event with the intent of really trying to connect to people that I think would like my product, or with the intent of just meeting new people and learning the most.

The intent dictates your actions and really the flavor of your experience. Chocolate. There’s an old proverb that says the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and I’ll let you argue about the actual meaning of that, because it’s actually a fun thing to discuss. It shows us just how important that word is and how people understand how it affects actions, or as in the intention of the phrase in actions. And yes, I used the phrase again.

Can You Truly Remove Intention?

So when I was mapping without intent, it allowed me to sort of explore things without that being my guide. It made things more difficult for me because I wasn’t pursuing an outcome other than the outcome of the mapping and understanding the person themselves. So what happens if you remove all intention and can you. Can you remove all intention from your actions. That seems unlikely, doesn’t it? If you go to the grocery store and you decide you don’t intend to buy anything, well then you intend to window shop. And as Rusche taught us in the song free Will, if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. But without getting too metaphysical, I just want to make the point. That intention is a huge part of what we do.

Intentions and The Three Voices

And in my book, Three Voices, I talk about the three languages our brains use to communicate with ourselves and others. I’m using the third voice. The first voice is basically our intuition, our gut feeling, sort of our programmatic programmatic level all the way down to the operating system. It really is our, our true self and our yes and no.

Unfortunately, a lot of our intentions get embedded into us in our second voice, and that’s our inner monologue or dialogue. The voices in our head, conversations we’ve had with people, the stuff we hear when we’re just trying to do something good, and then we hear this negative voice from our childhood or from from an ex or from what have you. But we also hear the voices of people who have been our mentors or things that we have read and the things that we aspire to. And spire sounds a bit like intend, doesn’t it? Your aspirations are your intentions.

Examining Your Daily Intentions

And as I do in my podcasts, I like to raise awareness of something that perhaps you weren’t quite aware of. And then we talk about it, and then we talk about an outcome or how to cope with it, react to it, deal with it, play with it. So I think it’s an interesting exercise for you to wake up one day and say, what are my intentions today? And maybe you do that. Maybe you’re one of these really amazing, awesome people. And I can tell you at a distance, I can I can see it. I just see it in you. You’re one of these people that clearly carries intentions with them at all times. and that’s cool.

And someone could say, well, you don’t have to be that uptight. You know, maybe you go without a direction. Well, then you’re intending to not have a direction. Do you see how you can’t escape it? But all kidding aside, all metaphysical. I think that’s a word. All that aside, it’s just a neat thing to be able to think about your intentions. And retrospectively, it can be a learning experience. You can go, wow, what was my intention yesterday with that? Why did I even do that? And examining your intentions can sometimes lead to your monsters and unicorns.

And that brings us full circle. So once again, thank you very much. I hope you intended to learn something or just intended to listen. I intended to teach you something. I intended to make it fun.

Okay, that’s enough of that word, Mark. Sorry. I hope you have a great day. And, uh, I’ll see you next time…

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