All systems go . . . is a phrase that was popularized during the space race of the 1960s.  It was a specific person, actually, who used the phrase — John Powers, the public information officer for the U.S. Space Program —  and then it just caught on and became an idiom meaning that everything is ready. 

There is another quote about systems often attributed to W. Edwards Deming of the Deming Institute, but it’s of disputed origin.  Regardless of who said it, it goes like this: “Every system is perfectly designed to get the outcome that it gets.”  It assumes a kind of Z to A way of analyzing efficacy.  So, first you have to identify the outcome you are experiencing. Once you know that, you will know what kind of system you have in place — the system that would create this particular result. 

Many spiritual seekers have done at least some work around the idea of setting intentions, the A to Z way of attempting to create specific outcomes. Current spiritual wisdom tells us that if we get clear on our heart’s desire, set an intention, and then affirm it regularly, we can create the reality we want — the results we want. But what is going on when we set an intention and it doesn’t pan out. Are we doing it wrong? 

Or could it just be that all systems aren’t quite on go? 

I don’t have any ground-breaking answers regarding the intersection of intentions and results. But I do think that if we want to understand the connection between them, we need to first explore the system.  And in this instance, the system is us. 

I find that the more time I spend in communion with my higher self, my divine nature, whatever you want to call your true and unchangeable self, the more my intentions arise naturally, on their own, from a pure place, and present themselves to me.  They are no longer clay that I’m attempting to shape, wet and formless clay that I’m pulling from the mud in handfuls and trying with everything within me to make into something at least presentable. No.  From the place of my beingness, my intentions become like doves that fly down to the ground and land at my feet. They aren’t made by me so much as they arrive and present themselves to me.  In time, they start to fly right into my hand, and then they even begin to alight right on my shoulder when I’m not even paying attention.  As my communion with my higher self continues and deepens, the dove can even become a hawk or an eagle.  In other words, the more I simply focus on my divine nature, the more my intentions create themselves.

My suggestion, and it’s only a suggestion, is to stop trying to figure out your life’s direction or what you should be affirming.  Stop trying to carefully word your intention.  Just for a little while. Instead, go inside.  Go deep inside. Check under the hood, so to speak.  Meditate.  Read Mooji or Michael Singer or Caroline Myss. Do whatever it is you need to do to commune with your true self. If you’re not sure what that is, ask.  Let the asking be your first intention. And when all systems are go, you’ll know the direction to take.  

Just a thought from here at ground control.