It’s VIRGO season; a very busy time of year when many are doing more of…just about everything… and we are also keenly interested in learning, improving our lives and changing unhealthy habits.

As you seek to improve yourself, instead of asking your willpower and discipline to help you make the changes you want to make, qualities which you’ve been conditioned to believe you need and must have in order to get things done…I invite you to employ your: DEDICATION & INTENTIONALITY.

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The difference between discipline and dedication is day to night, or masculine to feminine.

Discipline is the learned skill of being able to, for example, sit in a chair in order to write a book, or study for a test. It is how you have been trained to think (or conditioned) you must approach anything that requires your sustained time and effort.

Dedication is the art and skill of allowing your sense of devotion to lead the way in this effort. It has loving determination in it; in the same way a careful gardener tends to their prize roses, or the way you care for a beloved animal or child, you align your heartfelt-ness with *what matters most to you* and allow this to inform your sustained, steady, actions.

The difference is approach. Discipline is masculine, and dedication is feminine. And some of us, especially heart-centered and SENSITIVE PEOPLE who really EXCEL at DEDICATION and DEVOTION, tell ourselves we need discipline …when the reality is — we can call on our more innate and natural skill set.

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Likewise, you have been taught that you need willpower to accomplish the diet, exercise regime or shift you want to make in your reality. How about a more natural, more *just right for you* skill?: INTENTIONALITY.

Willpower pushes and strives; assuming there is difficulty, a hard surface to break.

Intentionality softens and eases into things, like water slowly loosening the earth’s soil in order to help the seedlings grow.

Willpower gives orders, and makes demands for something to happen.

Intentionality, gently, humbly (and yet firmly), invites something to happen for you.

Willpower doesn’t trust that this good thing we want is possible, so uses negative statements to “motivate”, and while this can call forth changed behavior, it doesn’t usually feel good.

Intentionality trusts… that once we are aligned with our highest and most positive vision for ourselves, that all good things are not only possible, they are already happening for us. We adjust our perception. We decide to feel good, first. Because we know that feeling good is the highest intention we can hold for true self-fulfillment. Then we can act and receive from this space.

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I have made my most profound shifts in life using this combination of DEDICATION & INTENTIONALITY. Again, dedication employs my ability to devote myself fully to something I love, similar to how a monk or nun demonstrates steadiness and sustained effort through tender devotion and purity of intent (to which you may relate).

Intentionality approaches all that I want for my life, as a prayer that has already happened because I have decided it is so. Intentionality asks me to relax, engage ABSOLUTE TRUST, as well as my practical discernment about how I direct my energies. As I get specific about what I want to grow in my life, and what most matters, I can act in accordance with this.

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So, which do you want to use: Discipline or Dedication? Willpower or Intentionality?

Each are appropriate for different situations. However, it may be helpful to know that we have all been culturally CONDITIONED to favor the former, neglect the latter, and depending on how wrongly you have been taught about yourself and your unique gifts, this oversight may add up to the equivalent of gross self-neglect.

To own your beautiful intentionality and dedication DECIDE to no longer overlook these beautiful feminine aspects you possess. This is your rightful FEMININE skill set; one you can employ in service of living your best life!

*Both image and inspiration for this post is from the Intuitive Energy Divination Deck. Click here to purchase.