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Intentional: How To Live, Love, Work and Play Meaningfully
Live your life the way you want to. Manage stress better. Be more resilient and enjoy meaningful relationships and better health. We all want that. Such life leads to better choices, better jobs, loving romantic partners, more rewarding careers and decisions that are fully aligned with our aims. What stops us from getting all that is the complexity of our brain and the complicated way in which the external world comes together. The misalignment between the internal states we experience and the external circumstances we encounter often leads to confusion, a lack of clarity in our thinking and actions that are not consistent with our professed values. Intentional is a gameplan. It helps us connect the pieces of our mind to the pieces of our life. It shows us how to map what we feel to what has caused those feelings. It helps us understand what affects us and what effects it has on us. It makes it possible for us to determine what we want, why we want it and what we need to do to get it. When we know what to do, we know how to behave. When we know how to behave we know how to act. When we know how to act, we know how to live. Our actions, each day, become our lives. Drawn from the latest research from the fields of neuroscience, behavioral and social psychology and evolutionary anthropology, Intentional shows how to add meaning to our actions and lead a meaningful, happier, more fulfilling life on our terms.
222 pages, Paperback
Published June 23, 2021
2 people are currently reading
4044 people want to read
About the author
David Amerland
36 books201 followersHey Goodreads peeps, drinks are on me. I’d love to be able to do this face-to-face, hear why you’re reading this over coffee (or a beer) and talk about my obsession with sensemaking, and how books rewire our brains and change the world.
Unfortunately, face-to-face is limiting and, most times, impossible. This is why I love Goodreads. Not only do I get to exorcise some of my demons by using my blog here
as a form of therapy, but I also get to answer questions you ask and post my latest news. The books I write take apart the mechanics of human behavior and analyze the building blocks of this world, though some readers interpret them as being about, search, the web, popular culture, and elite soldier mentality.
I believe that everything we do that is sustainable answers a specific need we experience at a basic human level. Search is information retrieval which is needed to help us make sense of what we see in the world (and there is a version of it inside our head), social networks answer our need for social connection and culture is just behavior that is driven by values, filtered through perception and modulated by context.
Digital technology does what technology has always done: augment existing human abilities and amplify human traits. It is no different, in that respect, to the car or the airplane. It challenges us right now because it is new, fast-moving and it impacts many of us at once. It attracts us because we sense the potential it offers for everyone to matter. For lives that are mostly invisible to feel that they belong. That they make sense.
My books are quoted by academics in research papers and used by universities as primers in classes. I try not to take this too seriously otherwise I won’t be able to write another word. What keeps me writing and evolving are the questions you have too: Why? Why are we the way we are? Why is the world the way it is? Why can we not all be better? Why is the struggle we experience so real? Why is everything just so difficult?
You can keep track of what I write by visiting my website.
You can ask me almost anything here and I hope you can join me as I go looking for answers to things that matter to us all.
Stay true and keep on reading,
David
Unfortunately, face-to-face is limiting and, most times, impossible. This is why I love Goodreads. Not only do I get to exorcise some of my demons by using my blog here
as a form of therapy, but I also get to answer questions you ask and post my latest news. The books I write take apart the mechanics of human behavior and analyze the building blocks of this world, though some readers interpret them as being about, search, the web, popular culture, and elite soldier mentality.
I believe that everything we do that is sustainable answers a specific need we experience at a basic human level. Search is information retrieval which is needed to help us make sense of what we see in the world (and there is a version of it inside our head), social networks answer our need for social connection and culture is just behavior that is driven by values, filtered through perception and modulated by context.
Digital technology does what technology has always done: augment existing human abilities and amplify human traits. It is no different, in that respect, to the car or the airplane. It challenges us right now because it is new, fast-moving and it impacts many of us at once. It attracts us because we sense the potential it offers for everyone to matter. For lives that are mostly invisible to feel that they belong. That they make sense.
My books are quoted by academics in research papers and used by universities as primers in classes. I try not to take this too seriously otherwise I won’t be able to write another word. What keeps me writing and evolving are the questions you have too: Why? Why are we the way we are? Why is the world the way it is? Why can we not all be better? Why is the struggle we experience so real? Why is everything just so difficult?
You can keep track of what I write by visiting my website.
You can ask me almost anything here and I hope you can join me as I go looking for answers to things that matter to us all.
Stay true and keep on reading,
David
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 9, 2021
I was very impressed by The Sniper Mind and this seems to cover some of the same ground, but in a more concentrated format applicable to daily life. There are quizzes and exercises at the end of each chapter, enabling you to use it as a workbook should you want to. However, this isn't a classic 'self-help' book, but an exploration of how our beliefs, values and motivation interact, backed up by extensive references from the neuroscience, anthropology and behavioural psychology literature.
Much of the content will be familiar to anyone who has engaged in some form of self-improvement: the importance of focus, resilience and motivation - but, unlike many authors who present these as individualised traits occurring in a vacuum, Amerland acknowledges the importance of our environment. The chapters on beliefs and values are particularly interesting in this respect: the section entitled 'Change Your Mind But Still Be You' in chapter 6 tackles the thorny issue of the relationship of belief, identity and behaviour. I also liked the fact that it is not didactic: the author clarifies that 'whether you personally feel that the brain and mind are separate or that the duality of mind and body exists is immaterial here'.
Amerland emphasises that self-awareness is the key to our understanding of feelings and emotions: it is tempting to see emotion as detrimental to effective decision-making, but emotions are powerful drivers towards actions. Humans are 'complex nested systems' and emotional connections enable us to develop grit, the characteristic which keeps us going through fear, doubt and physical discomfort.
As in The Sniper Mind, many of the examples in the book are of people who most of us would consider exceptional in some way, such as elite Special Forces soldiers. The achievements of such people can be daunting, especially if we are starting from a point of disadvantage - how does Cooper's colour code of combat readiness apply to someone with chronic anxiety, who is never in a state of 'white' (a sense of complete safety), but is almost constantly hypervigilant? How does someone with depression develop grit and purpose? In the chapter on happiness, Amerland points out that 'processes cannot be initialized if the vessel within which they take place is damaged', giving the example of John Stuart Mill's anhedonia. Luckily, we now have a greater understanding of cognitive differences than was the case in Mill's day. We are all at a different starting point, and Person A's Olympic medal may well be equivalent in effort to person B's getting out of bed and having breakfast.
I found myself making lots of notes (which is always a good sign!) and following up several of the references (yes, I did google 'Barbara Oakley'). I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to go beyond the 'feel-good' self-improvement literature and explore the issues of identity, values and behaviour in greater depth.
Much of the content will be familiar to anyone who has engaged in some form of self-improvement: the importance of focus, resilience and motivation - but, unlike many authors who present these as individualised traits occurring in a vacuum, Amerland acknowledges the importance of our environment. The chapters on beliefs and values are particularly interesting in this respect: the section entitled 'Change Your Mind But Still Be You' in chapter 6 tackles the thorny issue of the relationship of belief, identity and behaviour. I also liked the fact that it is not didactic: the author clarifies that 'whether you personally feel that the brain and mind are separate or that the duality of mind and body exists is immaterial here'.
Amerland emphasises that self-awareness is the key to our understanding of feelings and emotions: it is tempting to see emotion as detrimental to effective decision-making, but emotions are powerful drivers towards actions. Humans are 'complex nested systems' and emotional connections enable us to develop grit, the characteristic which keeps us going through fear, doubt and physical discomfort.
As in The Sniper Mind, many of the examples in the book are of people who most of us would consider exceptional in some way, such as elite Special Forces soldiers. The achievements of such people can be daunting, especially if we are starting from a point of disadvantage - how does Cooper's colour code of combat readiness apply to someone with chronic anxiety, who is never in a state of 'white' (a sense of complete safety), but is almost constantly hypervigilant? How does someone with depression develop grit and purpose? In the chapter on happiness, Amerland points out that 'processes cannot be initialized if the vessel within which they take place is damaged', giving the example of John Stuart Mill's anhedonia. Luckily, we now have a greater understanding of cognitive differences than was the case in Mill's day. We are all at a different starting point, and Person A's Olympic medal may well be equivalent in effort to person B's getting out of bed and having breakfast.
I found myself making lots of notes (which is always a good sign!) and following up several of the references (yes, I did google 'Barbara Oakley'). I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to go beyond the 'feel-good' self-improvement literature and explore the issues of identity, values and behaviour in greater depth.
April 23, 2022
Deconstructing ourselves, the game of life (an emergent game of datum pieces and a process of becomming) is hard. Building frameworks and collecting perspectives on how to tackle these fundamentals of life is even harder.
And this is what reading Intentional helps you do better and in a self-aware manner.
Deconstructing yourself is neither easy nor something we would happily start doing tomorrow. Yet it is rewarding, for you then reap the benefits of clarity, mindful actions and tools to control your mindset and attitude to achieve efficiency (or to use the narrative of Intentional - less energy spent for greater reward). With Intentional you get these rewards thorughout a process of understanding yourself and the parts that don't rally belong to you.
Intentional is not straightforward for efficiency. Efficiency comes as a by-product of the effort you put (with the help of each of the parts), to understand what is meaningful to you, what matters and how, given the resources you have, you can bring these into your life.
For me the book served for alignment of what you feel, do and strive for. It is something similar to a book I imagined, as a teenager, you should get when beginning to play the game of life - a handbook of instructions how to drive on the Life’s highway.
Unlike other books, intended to help you live a better, more meaningful life, Intentional gives frameworks that stem from the inside. That is to manage the external environment you learn to first manage your internal environment. Which internal environment, as you get to understand with the book, is made of too many misunderstood concepts and false constructs (yes, hard to admit!)
The way the book is structured helps you find your own way towards deconstructing yourself. There are chapters with traits, followed by questions to help you find how you function and also a “shortcut” - one question for you to answer or a task to tackle immediately. [Just a wuick note re: shortcut here. The book also teaches you that there are no shortcuts :)]
With Intentional, having been a hamster in the wheel of too much work, academic writing, parenthood and searching for ways to change how I spend energy and resources, I got to stop, realize where I am, who I am, where I am headed and why some of the things I do are with so much friction. It is not easy and it takes time and devotion.
Intentional is kind of a manual which, parallel to giving you instructions, helps you keep the faith that you can do better when you start from the heart and don't fool yourself into easy solutions and frameworks that ultimately backfire. Because they lack meaning.
To describe the book with one paragraph, let me start with a proverb I recently stumbled upon:
You can do everything right and still miss the most important thing.
Well, Intentional helps you get to this most important on your way back to yourself, through the woods of all the constructs (including the one of yourself) you have fallen victim to.
And it gives you tools to carve out yourself out of your own material (purpose, values, beliefs) depending on what you want to achieve and why.
It does what it promises - helps you “minimize cognitive dissonance, and the helplessness we feel” by reducing the gap between what we feel, what we think and what we do.(p. 30 _ sorry, PhD habit of meticulously indexing resources :D)
Here are some highlights that might be helpful from my own notes. These are part of the differentiations I found helpful and jotted down to use as cognitive leverages for each section (part of self-deconstruction)
- Ideas, values and beliefs create the context through which we filter everything. (1. Life, p. 24)
- The three constituents of identity: How we view our self, How others view us, How we behave because of the way we think others view us (2. Identity, p. 43.)
- Our ability to exhibit higher executive functions in critical situations is, indeed, a test on how we manage thoughts and responses that arise out of our immediate senses and operate in such a way as to achieve a desirable outcome at a future moment.
Treat your time like you’re paying for every second you have. Treat your energy like it costs you money to renew everyday. (3. Goals., p. 51, p. 58)
- Emotions drive and blind us.
To direct our motivation, we ned to ask a simple question: What would make us happier - (4. Motivation)
- The equation of success: Energetic Cost of Activity < Reward (Behaviour, p. 82)
- Our beliefs are filters base on our values that determine our attitude. Attitude leas us to behavior. This is the chain that leads from the internal states of our being to the external observable actions we take (6. Beliefs p. 11)
- Being intentional requires closing the gap betwee what we say or acknowledge what we value and what we do. (7. Values P. 119)
- We need self-knowledge to create the core identity that is responsible for generating values, creating grit and manufacturing the motivation we need to get anything done. (8. Grit p. 139)
- Attitude and mindset are the elements that form our interface with the world. Mindset=how we see the world; Attitude=how we interact with the world (Attitude, p. 149)
- Happiness is a process of becoming. (Happiness p. 184)
I highly recommend you the book if you have time, a need and some readiness to peel back the onion of you and your life (and inevitably, actually intentionally :) shed some tears).
And this is what reading Intentional helps you do better and in a self-aware manner.
Deconstructing yourself is neither easy nor something we would happily start doing tomorrow. Yet it is rewarding, for you then reap the benefits of clarity, mindful actions and tools to control your mindset and attitude to achieve efficiency (or to use the narrative of Intentional - less energy spent for greater reward). With Intentional you get these rewards thorughout a process of understanding yourself and the parts that don't rally belong to you.
Intentional is not straightforward for efficiency. Efficiency comes as a by-product of the effort you put (with the help of each of the parts), to understand what is meaningful to you, what matters and how, given the resources you have, you can bring these into your life.
For me the book served for alignment of what you feel, do and strive for. It is something similar to a book I imagined, as a teenager, you should get when beginning to play the game of life - a handbook of instructions how to drive on the Life’s highway.
Unlike other books, intended to help you live a better, more meaningful life, Intentional gives frameworks that stem from the inside. That is to manage the external environment you learn to first manage your internal environment. Which internal environment, as you get to understand with the book, is made of too many misunderstood concepts and false constructs (yes, hard to admit!)
The way the book is structured helps you find your own way towards deconstructing yourself. There are chapters with traits, followed by questions to help you find how you function and also a “shortcut” - one question for you to answer or a task to tackle immediately. [Just a wuick note re: shortcut here. The book also teaches you that there are no shortcuts :)]
With Intentional, having been a hamster in the wheel of too much work, academic writing, parenthood and searching for ways to change how I spend energy and resources, I got to stop, realize where I am, who I am, where I am headed and why some of the things I do are with so much friction. It is not easy and it takes time and devotion.
Intentional is kind of a manual which, parallel to giving you instructions, helps you keep the faith that you can do better when you start from the heart and don't fool yourself into easy solutions and frameworks that ultimately backfire. Because they lack meaning.
To describe the book with one paragraph, let me start with a proverb I recently stumbled upon:
You can do everything right and still miss the most important thing.
Well, Intentional helps you get to this most important on your way back to yourself, through the woods of all the constructs (including the one of yourself) you have fallen victim to.
And it gives you tools to carve out yourself out of your own material (purpose, values, beliefs) depending on what you want to achieve and why.
It does what it promises - helps you “minimize cognitive dissonance, and the helplessness we feel” by reducing the gap between what we feel, what we think and what we do.(p. 30 _ sorry, PhD habit of meticulously indexing resources :D)
Here are some highlights that might be helpful from my own notes. These are part of the differentiations I found helpful and jotted down to use as cognitive leverages for each section (part of self-deconstruction)
- Ideas, values and beliefs create the context through which we filter everything. (1. Life, p. 24)
- The three constituents of identity: How we view our self, How others view us, How we behave because of the way we think others view us (2. Identity, p. 43.)
- Our ability to exhibit higher executive functions in critical situations is, indeed, a test on how we manage thoughts and responses that arise out of our immediate senses and operate in such a way as to achieve a desirable outcome at a future moment.
Treat your time like you’re paying for every second you have. Treat your energy like it costs you money to renew everyday. (3. Goals., p. 51, p. 58)
- Emotions drive and blind us.
To direct our motivation, we ned to ask a simple question: What would make us happier - (4. Motivation)
- The equation of success: Energetic Cost of Activity < Reward (Behaviour, p. 82)
- Our beliefs are filters base on our values that determine our attitude. Attitude leas us to behavior. This is the chain that leads from the internal states of our being to the external observable actions we take (6. Beliefs p. 11)
- Being intentional requires closing the gap betwee what we say or acknowledge what we value and what we do. (7. Values P. 119)
- We need self-knowledge to create the core identity that is responsible for generating values, creating grit and manufacturing the motivation we need to get anything done. (8. Grit p. 139)
- Attitude and mindset are the elements that form our interface with the world. Mindset=how we see the world; Attitude=how we interact with the world (Attitude, p. 149)
- Happiness is a process of becoming. (Happiness p. 184)
I highly recommend you the book if you have time, a need and some readiness to peel back the onion of you and your life (and inevitably, actually intentionally :) shed some tears).
January 19, 2022
Read my review on NovelsAlive.com by clicking the link below. It is also posted in full.
https://novelsalive.com/2022/01/19/4-...
Intentional: How to Live, Love, Work and Play Meaningfully by David Amerland is a non-fiction, self-help book to provide tools to help you live a happier and more meaningful life.
There are several references to science as well as to other books, journals, authors, movies, and historical figures that were pertinent to the various chapters the author is discussing. He also referenced his own book, The Sniper Mind, a few times.
The chapters are titled, and each also had subchapters. The areas Amerland discussed definitely resonated with me. I liked that at the end of each chapter, Amerland had Points to Remember, which briefly highlighted the essential points of the chapter, followed by questions that definitely made me think. The Top Tip was practical and could easily be completed.
The many charts and diagrams gave visuals to some of the essential topics and made them clearer to me. Some of what Amerland presented were quotes and ideas I’ve heard before, but he placed them in another context which was an interesting approach. The chapters I enjoyed most were those pertaining to goals, beliefs, values, attitude, and mindset.
An extensive bibliography and index are also provided at the end of the book. I may give one or two of Amberland’s other books a try when I’m in the mood for a non-fiction book. I liked the cover, too, as it’s what drew me to the book initially.
Intentional was a quick read even when I stopped to ponder some of the questions presented or the Top Tip. I would recommend this book to others since I found the topic compelling, and it did make me stop and think more than a few times.
https://novelsalive.com/2022/01/19/4-...
Intentional: How to Live, Love, Work and Play Meaningfully by David Amerland is a non-fiction, self-help book to provide tools to help you live a happier and more meaningful life.
There are several references to science as well as to other books, journals, authors, movies, and historical figures that were pertinent to the various chapters the author is discussing. He also referenced his own book, The Sniper Mind, a few times.
The chapters are titled, and each also had subchapters. The areas Amerland discussed definitely resonated with me. I liked that at the end of each chapter, Amerland had Points to Remember, which briefly highlighted the essential points of the chapter, followed by questions that definitely made me think. The Top Tip was practical and could easily be completed.
The many charts and diagrams gave visuals to some of the essential topics and made them clearer to me. Some of what Amerland presented were quotes and ideas I’ve heard before, but he placed them in another context which was an interesting approach. The chapters I enjoyed most were those pertaining to goals, beliefs, values, attitude, and mindset.
An extensive bibliography and index are also provided at the end of the book. I may give one or two of Amberland’s other books a try when I’m in the mood for a non-fiction book. I liked the cover, too, as it’s what drew me to the book initially.
Intentional was a quick read even when I stopped to ponder some of the questions presented or the Top Tip. I would recommend this book to others since I found the topic compelling, and it did make me stop and think more than a few times.
November 10, 2021
Intentional by David Amerland is a fascinating resource that empowers you to live life intentionally. It brings together all those pieces of our brain that can hold us back so that we can understand motivation, direct our actions, and live life with meaning.
Though at the start of 2020, I committed myself to living intentionally, I've found it hard to create a life filled with clarity and purpose. I still can't keep a journal going past March. I still don't reach many of my goals. I still don't exercise three times a week. Why is that?
Intentional helps the reader understand why we often don't hit the mark, but rather than give this topic a brush stroke, Amerland digs deep into the science of our brains; our identities, different types of motivations and how to discover our real desires, and how our values and beliefs impact what we do.
I can't say this is an easy read. It's not a self-help, step-by-step guide. I'm sure I have to go back and re-read some chapters to fully set a plan into action. What will be helpful in that is the summary at the end of each chapter that shares points to remember, followed by questions that the reader answers, and ending in the author providing a top tip.
No journey to improve is instantaneous. It requires purposeful planning. Intentional can help you get there.
Though at the start of 2020, I committed myself to living intentionally, I've found it hard to create a life filled with clarity and purpose. I still can't keep a journal going past March. I still don't reach many of my goals. I still don't exercise three times a week. Why is that?
Intentional helps the reader understand why we often don't hit the mark, but rather than give this topic a brush stroke, Amerland digs deep into the science of our brains; our identities, different types of motivations and how to discover our real desires, and how our values and beliefs impact what we do.
I can't say this is an easy read. It's not a self-help, step-by-step guide. I'm sure I have to go back and re-read some chapters to fully set a plan into action. What will be helpful in that is the summary at the end of each chapter that shares points to remember, followed by questions that the reader answers, and ending in the author providing a top tip.
No journey to improve is instantaneous. It requires purposeful planning. Intentional can help you get there.
October 15, 2021
4.5 stars. This is a well-organized, well-researched exploration of how to live a more intentional life. A lot of things work together in service of that aim--defining one's identity, figuring out the values that inform your behavior, deciding what goals are worth wholehearted pursuit, etc. Each section on those topics includes a respectable amount of cited research, examples from both real life and narratives (everything from Pride & Prejudice to Captain America), then a summary and questions/exercises to help the reader personally engage with the topic.
This is a useful tool in the pursuit of living an examined life and there are valuable ideas and things to ponder in here for everyone.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!
This is a useful tool in the pursuit of living an examined life and there are valuable ideas and things to ponder in here for everyone.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!
December 31, 2021
We are often pushed into a life we did not choose: Parents, friends, relatives, and spouses influence our decisions. Yet, we go with the flow to avoid the discomfort of judgement or fear of the unknown we'll face if we venture off the beaten path.
Intentional is a clear, simple and straight-to-the-point handbook of life that can help anybody understand the chains of culture and provides the keys to free ourselves from the network of predefined instincts we cannot see and don't always understand.
Leading the life we dream of is a challenge - Intentional provides the means for us to take responsibility for our choices and control over our direction to experiment and find what works best for us.
Intentional is a clear, simple and straight-to-the-point handbook of life that can help anybody understand the chains of culture and provides the keys to free ourselves from the network of predefined instincts we cannot see and don't always understand.
Leading the life we dream of is a challenge - Intentional provides the means for us to take responsibility for our choices and control over our direction to experiment and find what works best for us.
April 30, 2022
In many ways Intentional, like most good books, is a journey. It offers a transition from opacity to clarity in understanding the contexts of the world around us and some of the ways we respond to it often without even knowing. It's a synthesis of scientific study and anecdotal observation forged into a framework to help us better recognize how we ourselves chart the course of our own destiny's wether we like it or not.
In this book David identities and analyzes key drivers and motivators of people in a variety of situations and distills core elements of what makes their responses to lifes challenges different from, and more successful than, the average person. He presents what he gleens in clean straightforward chapters that offer context and clarity to help you understand why and how you repond to life and how to maximize your control to achieve the outcomes we hope and strive for.
David's approach to this topic is both deliberate and thoughtful, providing context and allegory to derive critical insights and present them in a way that provides an actionable structure to implement them in our daily lives. It's blueprint, road map and recipe all in one. We can sometimes feel our lives are living us instead of us living our lives. With work and responsibilities piling ever higher into a finite space of time. Changing that would require a feat no less remarkable than the alchemical transmutation of lead into gold. Intentional has the ambition of being nothing less than our very own philosopher's stone and it delivers on it's promise.
Each chapter looks at traits and core values we all share and evaluates how their intentional and sub conscious application in given situations can and do affect the outcomes we hope to achieve. Each characteristic is examined in detail often accompanied by scientific literature and interpretation of the outcomes of experiments as well as breakdown and analysis.
Then it goes further to help you both understand and incorporate the lessons learned through this process to achieve a more deliberate approach to live or buisness and maximize potential success.
What David is trying to do with his book is bold and ambitious and it more than delivers. I have myself used the insights contained therein to be more intentional in my everyday life. To take charge to my response to what the world throws at me or what I hope to achieve in it not by changing the world, but by better understanding myself.
I personally recommend this book to anyone interested in taking control of and ultimately changing your life. This is no mere prescription of positive reinforcement, it's a science styled analysis of widely recognized attributes of not just successful people but of all us humans. This provides actionable context we can use to change how we respond to life and thus chart the course of the future we hope to one day ourselves become.
We all have the power to sculpt our lives, to shape and mold them to become what we want them to be. Some people never get to know what their power is, never probe it's depths, never acknowledge it's reality. But real it is, and Intentional can help you find it. Help you find your power. To shape your life. To change your circumstances. Maybe you've always thought there was more to you than just what you've been led to believe. That you have more agency and ability to control your life than you know. Let you in on a little secret, you do. This book my friend is your best opportunity to finally find that out for yourself.
In this book David identities and analyzes key drivers and motivators of people in a variety of situations and distills core elements of what makes their responses to lifes challenges different from, and more successful than, the average person. He presents what he gleens in clean straightforward chapters that offer context and clarity to help you understand why and how you repond to life and how to maximize your control to achieve the outcomes we hope and strive for.
David's approach to this topic is both deliberate and thoughtful, providing context and allegory to derive critical insights and present them in a way that provides an actionable structure to implement them in our daily lives. It's blueprint, road map and recipe all in one. We can sometimes feel our lives are living us instead of us living our lives. With work and responsibilities piling ever higher into a finite space of time. Changing that would require a feat no less remarkable than the alchemical transmutation of lead into gold. Intentional has the ambition of being nothing less than our very own philosopher's stone and it delivers on it's promise.
Each chapter looks at traits and core values we all share and evaluates how their intentional and sub conscious application in given situations can and do affect the outcomes we hope to achieve. Each characteristic is examined in detail often accompanied by scientific literature and interpretation of the outcomes of experiments as well as breakdown and analysis.
Then it goes further to help you both understand and incorporate the lessons learned through this process to achieve a more deliberate approach to live or buisness and maximize potential success.
What David is trying to do with his book is bold and ambitious and it more than delivers. I have myself used the insights contained therein to be more intentional in my everyday life. To take charge to my response to what the world throws at me or what I hope to achieve in it not by changing the world, but by better understanding myself.
I personally recommend this book to anyone interested in taking control of and ultimately changing your life. This is no mere prescription of positive reinforcement, it's a science styled analysis of widely recognized attributes of not just successful people but of all us humans. This provides actionable context we can use to change how we respond to life and thus chart the course of the future we hope to one day ourselves become.
We all have the power to sculpt our lives, to shape and mold them to become what we want them to be. Some people never get to know what their power is, never probe it's depths, never acknowledge it's reality. But real it is, and Intentional can help you find it. Help you find your power. To shape your life. To change your circumstances. Maybe you've always thought there was more to you than just what you've been led to believe. That you have more agency and ability to control your life than you know. Let you in on a little secret, you do. This book my friend is your best opportunity to finally find that out for yourself.
May 9, 2022
Pretty much the same as all the other self help books, but with nerd references instead of sports references. Also a lot about snipers.
Read
March 19, 2022David Amerland has always been an influential thinker for me -- for example, his book on SEO was my college degree in that space! Intentional belongs on my top shelf along with 7 Habits, Getting Things Done, Fierce Conversations, and Radical Candor. If you like this kind of thinking, you will love this book: "Life is complex. We are complicated. There will be times when this value statement will be reversed. What will never change however is the sense of satisfaction that comes from being the sole architect of how you choose to live." Amerland, David. Intentional (p. 38). David Amerland. Kindle Edition.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews