I love it when I come across something in reading that makes an immediate and significant contribution to my life. And I particularly love it when I run across two such things that appear to work synergistically.

That's what happened this week, a particularly challenging week for me, in large part because my daughter, Amber, came down with the chicken pox. Amber is rarely sick and hasn't been this sick since she was 3 or 4. (She's now almost 13), so I found myself 'off purpose' a fair amount of time.

Then, as I was browsing through my library in the 'spirituality section' for something that would give me a little guidance through this, I came across Eckhart Tolle's, The Power of Now. Having just written an article about what I gleaned from this book, I won't belabor the point here, only to say that beginning to witness my own mind-made pain regarding Amber was very valuable in moving through it.

My next nugget of gold came from another source, this time in listening form, that I'd been acquainted with in the past but had forgotten about. This was an Abraham-Hicks tape on Segment Intending.

As with many effective processes, this one is simple and direct. It involves breaking your day up into segments and setting at the start by creating a particular intention for that segment. For example, when I came up to my office this morning to write this ezine, I started by first setting the intention to be creative, to enjoy the experience of writing and to provide value to life for the pure joy of it.

When I finish this 'segment' of my day, I'll set a new intention for whatever is next, and on and on throughout the day. What I find interesting is that both of these nuggets -- witnessing and segment intending -- bring me more present to what is happening NOW, and allows me to be less in my head, caught up with worry of what might happen or regret about what has already happened. So, thanks Eckhart and Abraham-Hicks for giving me some additional tools for staying on purpose.

©2005 Brad Swift of Life On Purpose Institute, Inc. This article can be reprinted freely online, as long as the entire article and this resource box are included.