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15 years ago, Beth Jones, an environmentalist, decided to put her money where her mouth was. She moved her money – inherited from a great-aunt – into socially responsible mutual funds. Now they have done as well as – or better than – traditional funds.

Beth's story was featured in The Toronto Star recently. Beth and I had both worked for the same environment organization. "Putting-your-money-where-your-mouth-is" was a powerful phrase when we persuaded potential donors. Often, it worked!

When our intention, feeling and behaviour are aligned, we become powerful in realizing our goals. Beth has done just that on environmental issues. Now her belief and practice are passed on to many of The Toronto Star's more-than-one-million readers.

Joy Juckes, an exceptional acting coach, knows how to align her intention, feeling and behaviour to achieve results. Years ago, she set her intention to have a very good relationship with her step-daughter, despite the discord between them. Joy visualized that one day her step-daughter would sit intimately beside her, talking about life.

Joy kept that image vividly in her mind, throughout her daily interaction with her step-daughter. In doing so, Joy aligned her behaviour and feeling towards her step-daughter with her intentions. Her daughter responded. "Eventually what I visualized played out in reality," Joy told me. "She sat beside me, her head on my lap. We talked about her problems, her hopes. It's just like in a movie. We've been friends ever since!"

Intention, feeling and behaviour are inter-related. They influence each other all the time. You have read the example of Joy using her intention to align her behaviour and feeling. You probably have heard about Laughter Clubs, where members laugh to create happy feelings. You must have experienced the feeling of being attracted to someone, then had the intension to pursue your love, and acted on it! (A friend of mine, Rhonda, joined a soccer team to win her man over, and succeeded!)

Now you may ask: what should I do if my feelings are not aligned with my intention? Focus on your intention and your behaviour that is aligned with your intention. Dwell on them and let their influence build up to turn your unaligned feelings into alignment.

You may also ask: what should I do if my behaviours are not aligned with my intention? Focus on your intention and your feeling that is aligned with your intention. Dwell on them and let their influence build up to turn your unaligned behaviours into alignment.

The key is to dwell on what is aligned with your intention. After the first big snow this winter, I felt reluctant to shovel the snow. Yet as I focused on shovelling, I began to feel like I was having a good workout. Better than running on a treadmill, this workout got a useful job done! Had I dwelled on my reluctant feeling exclusively, I wouldn't have enjoyed shovelling that day, and many times afterwards.

Think about a current issue or a recent situation in your life. Become aware of your intention, feeling and behaviour associated with this issue / situation. Like Beth, Joy and Rhonda, you too can align your feeling and behaviour with your intention and achieve your goals.

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This issue concludes the Self-Awareness series. Next we will begin the Self-Leadership series. You will learn how to harness your awareness to lead yourself to the path to success.

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