Who Do I Want to Be?
A Lifelong Practice of Living with Intention
Looking back over my life, I realise I have been practising intention-setting for many years, long before I knew it had a name.
At the time, I simply saw it as changing my mindset and choosing a more positive way of being. It became one of the most empowering ways I knew to align with the person I wanted to become.
I remember someone once saying to me, "You work with intention-setting well, Jean."
Until then, I had never thought of it as a technique or practice. It was simply how I naturally approached life.
For me, setting an intention has never been about achieving something. It has always been about choosing how I want to be.
It is a personal commitment to the energy, attitude, and values I want to bring into each day.
Many mornings I would begin with a simple intention: to be present, to act with kindness, to remain patient, or to stay grounded. Although these intentions seemed small, they gradually changed how I experienced life, particularly during periods of challenge and uncertainty.
One of the most powerful intentions I ever set was during my cancer diagnosis and treatment.
I made a conscious decision to walk through that experience with as much grace, clarity, courage, and trust as I could. That intention became an anchor. It didn't remove the fear or what lay ahead, but it helped guide my thoughts and responses when life felt overwhelming.
Over time, I came to realise that self-awareness played a crucial role in this process. As I came to understand myself more deeply—my values, strengths, patterns, and hopes—I became better able to choose intentions that genuinely reflected the person I wanted to be.
Before I set an intention, I still ask myself three simple questions:
Do I believe in it?
Is my heart fully in it?
Is it aligned with the life I want to create?
If the answer is yes, I move forward with confidence.
My intentions are deeply personal.
For me, intention-setting has never been about controlling life.
It has been about choosing how I meet it.
Instead of asking: "What do I want to get?"
I ask: "Who do I want to be?"
From Intention to Manifestation
As the years passed, I began noticing something else.
Many of the intentions I held with genuine belief, commitment, and consistent action gradually unfolded in my life.
It wasn't simply a case of wishing for something and hoping it would appear. For me, it was about becoming aligned with what I hoped to create.
When I set an intention, I used my imagination to picture how I wanted my life to feel. Rather than focusing on what I wanted to achieve, I focused on how I wanted to live and who I wanted to become.
I remember someone asking me many years ago,
"Do you believe in manifesting, Jean? Do you believe you can wish something into existence?"
I smiled and replied, "Yes... but not in the way you mean. To me, manifesting goes far beyond wishful thinking."
For me, manifestation is the process of bringing an inner vision into outer reality. It means aligning my thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and actions with the life I hope to create.
It has never been about waiting for life to change.
It has always been about participating in that change.
One experience has stayed with me for many years.
At the time, I was living in England, going through a painful divorce, and feeling deeply homesick for Scotland. More than anything, I wanted a fresh start for my children and me.
Together, we began imagining the kind of home we hoped to find.
We pictured a large house on a hill, schools nearby, football pitches for my son, other children for my daughters to play with, and a home filled with warmth, laughter, and new beginnings.
We held onto that picture with hope and belief.
Then one morning I felt an overwhelming urge to place an advertisement in a local newspaper for a house—oddly enough, in an area I had never considered living in.
The feeling was so strong that I simply trusted it.
Two days later the telephone rang. "Would you consider moving to East Kilbride?" I was asked.
I had never been there before, but I found myself saying I would consider it.
When I visited, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
There was the house at the top of a hill. The schools were within walking distance. Football pitches lay just down the lane, and there were plenty of children nearby for my daughters to play with.
Within weeks we had moved. Was it coincidence? Perhaps.
Was it intuition, intention, belief, action, or manifestation? Perhaps.
I have never felt the need to fully explain it.
I simply know that holding a clear vision, believing it was possible, remaining open to opportunity, and taking action changed the direction of my life.
Over the years I became interested in the ideas behind Manifestation and the Law of Attraction.
People hold many different views about these concepts, and I respect that.
For me, some of those ideas resonated with experiences I had already lived.
What mattered most was never the label.
It was the way living with intention, gratitude, hope, and purposeful action repeatedly shaped my life.
Gratitude and the Law of Attraction
As I continued learning and reflecting, I became interested in the ideas behind the Law of Attraction.
People understand it in different ways. Some see it as a spiritual principle, others as a way of focusing the mind, while some remain unconvinced by it altogether.
For me, it has never been about wishing for life to change whilst waiting for something to happen.
It has been about living in alignment with the life I hoped to create.
When I believed something was possible, I also prepared for it.
Before we moved to Scotland, I began buying things for the home I believed we would one day have.
The children talked excitedly about the colours they wanted for their bedrooms, and together we continued adding details to the picture we held in our minds.
We weren't simply hoping for change. We were preparing for it. With hindsight, I believe that intention, belief, gratitude, and action all worked together.
Gratitude became an important part of that process.
Even during difficult times, I tried to focus on what I still had rather than only on what was missing.
I was grateful for my children, for the opportunities that lay ahead, and for the belief that life still held another chapter waiting to unfold.
Whether people call that the Law of Attraction or simply a positive way of approaching life doesn't really matter to me.
What mattered was the difference it made to the way I lived.
Living with Intention Today
Those same principles have remained with me throughout my life.
When I was diagnosed with cancer, I found myself returning to them once again.
I couldn't control my diagnosis, the treatments, or what lay ahead.
What I could choose was how I responded.
Each morning I continued setting my intention.
Some days it was simply to remain calm.
Some days it was to trust.
Some days it was simply to notice something that lifted my spirits, even if it was only the warmth of the sun on my face or the gentle movement of the trees.
Gratitude became more important than ever.
Not because it removed the fear or sadness, but because it helped me recognise that even in the most difficult times there was still life and possibility.
Today, I continue to live this way.
I don't see intention, manifestation, or gratitude as quick fixes.
I see them as daily practices that help me live with greater awareness, and purpose.
I don't believe they changed life itself.
I believe they changed the way I walked through it.
And perhaps that has made all the difference.
What I Have Learned
Looking back, I realise that intention-setting has always been part of how I approach life.
It has influenced the choices I made, the way I responded to challenges, and the direction my life gradually took.
Whether I was creating a safer life for my children, returning home to Scotland, building meaningful work, navigating cancer, or simply appreciating the beauty of an ordinary day, I was often guided by the same simple question: Who do I want to be?
The answers have changed over the years as I have grown and life has unfolded in unexpected ways.
But the practice itself has remained the same.
It begins with awareness.
It grows through belief.
It is strengthened by gratitude.
And it becomes real through the choices we make each day.
Today, I don't see intention, manifestation, or the Law of Attraction as separate ideas.
I see them as different ways of describing the relationship between our inner world and the life we gradually create around us.
Whether we view that through spirituality, psychology, or simply as a way of living with greater awareness, each of us has the opportunity to choose how we respond to life.
For me, that choice has never been about creating a perfect life.
It has been about creating a meaningful one.
You Could Try...
Tomorrow morning, before the day begins, ask yourself one simple question:
Who do I want to be today?
Then choose one intention that reflects your answer.
Perhaps:
Today, I choose patience.
Today, I choose kindness.
Today, I choose courage.
Today, I choose gratitude.
One small intention may not change everything around you.
But it may change how you experience the day ahead.
Perhaps that one simple question is enough to begin shaping your life one day at a time.