This Is It

You're reading this because you either know something needs to change or something is changing and you don't know how to adapt to that. You're aware enough to know that how you're currently relating to tension — stress, challenge, adversity in your relationships, family, community or business — isn't working anymore. And you're right. It isn't.

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We've been taught to push tension away. Reject it. See it as "bad" or "negative". So you do what leaders do: you do whatever it takes to manage it. But this likely leaves you feeling more distracted, confused, stressed, isolated and cyclically burning yourself out — all of which reflects in your relationships. Here's what needs to shift: the problem is not tension. The problem is how you relate to tension. Tension is necessary. It's the signal that something matters. It's where the spark of meaningful change begins. But only if you know how to work with it deliberately, not against it. Only if you can channel it into direction and effective, constructive precision, instead of being fragmented by it.

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During my year-long vow of silence, six words fell out of my mouth across four different occasions:

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Yes. F***. S***, sorry, Thor. Ciao.

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Each time I accidentally spoke, it was coupled with a tremendous amount of shame. I was raising money for charity, and I felt I had failed them — and everyone who had donated. I couldn't escape that feeling. I tried punishing myself with exercise. I isolated myself, not knowing how to express what felt like letting down my entire community.

 

But each time, I began to identify why it happened — and I noticed a pattern. I wasn't resting when I needed to. Instead of tending to my needs, I drank more coffee so I could do more with my time: train harder, feel good, create more. And the result was always the same.

 

The last word fell out seven months in. I was on a run near my home in the Italian Alps when I saw someone I knew on the other side of the river. I was exhausted, and before I knew it, I was waving and yelling "Ciao!"

 

First, the shame fell on me like a metal jacket. Then came a deep frustration — an anger I hadn't felt before. Right. That's it, I thought. No more. I took myself into the river to cool off — like quenching a sword — and set a clear intention: to keep my word, and to love myself enough to take care of my own needs.

 

Among the many lessons I learnt that year, this one was foundational: my ability to hold my intention — in that case, not speaking — rested on the health of my nervous system and my ability to self-regulate. If I didn't take full ownership and responsibility for that, I would keep hurting myself and keep breaking my word.

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The Intention Approach is a systematic way to master yourself across four dimensions so you can command your intention, especially when it matters most — when pressure rises, when doubt creeps in, when adversity tests what you're building. Because if you want to be clear on your mission, task or challenge, you have to get clear on your intention.

Ask yourself "what's the point?" and you'll get better at pointing. This is what the Intention Approach helps you develop — clarity in the face of confusion.

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The structure is simple.

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I + T = IT.

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This formula states that Intention is the integration of tension. You do this through mastery over the four acts:

listening | playing | loving | empowering...

 

...Yourself. Which is to say, developing your awareness, ability to express yourself, increasing your capacity for love and strengthening your ability to self regulate. This in turn broadens perception, increases creativity and acceptance. Ultimately, you reset your mind, body and how you share and interpret the world around you. 

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Together, mastering the four acts and The Intention Formula, you create the capacity to hold your intention steady in the face of challenge. This approach gives you command over your own narrative so you're defining your experience, not being defined by circumstance or other people's projections of who you are.

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Intention is a process — living with purpose, meaning and direction — where you actively author your own story with greater precision and power. Where tension becomes the fuel, not the obstacle. Where you take full responsibility for your direction and your life.

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The more you focus on intention, the more focus you will have on what matters most to you. In turn, you will become more masterful at communicating your intentions and understanding the intentions of others.

The Intention Approach harnesses the power of intention setting as a tool for motivation, action, accountability and reflection. It offers you simple and effective tools to live out and communicate your creative authenticity in a way that is in natural alignment with your psychophysiology.

Fundamentally, this isn't about who you could be, but becoming present with who you are.

Know yourself.
Show yourself.
Hold yourself.
Be yourself.