Be careful of your intentions! You just might attract what you're seeking.

A few years ago when I was working for the City and County of Denver, Reps from LinkedIn encouraged us to write a mission statement rather than the typical job title along the headline section. What seemed like a simple exercise proved to be much harder. How do you encapsulate a sense of you and what you're seeking in a Twitter style headline?

Several years later, when I was working at Great-West Financial, our leader Peter Lynch encouraged and challenged us to ask ourselves, tell me about you? What came out of my mouth was the following: "I get energy from connecting people to opportunities that promote innovation and personal growth". Some version of this headline has remained on my LinkedIn profile for several years. It's just a headline and mission statement. Or so I thought...

What originally started as an exercise to create a catchy mission statement started manifesting requests for connections and services I had never imagined. "Hey, let's connect! Personal growth and thinking outside the box is something that I'm passionate about too!"

I noticed setting an intention started to change my behavior and risk taking. If I get energy from people and ideas to promote innovation and personal growth, am I just going to sit there or do something about it?

My change in perception led to the creation and implementation of a meditation class at the City and County of Denver by simply asking a question. That led to both Great-West Financial and First Western Trust requesting a similar class for employees. In the midst of that, individuals started reaching out for meditation instructions. Which led to other mindfulness workers reaching out and asking for partnership on projects.

That led to strangers and former co-workers reaching out for career coaching services, which led to the creation of my side consulting business, Ziji Solution.

That led to participating and supporting other organizations with similar intentions like TEDxMileHigh and TEDxBoulder which led to more connections and so on.

None of this was planned. I wish I was smart enough to envision this kind of future. I would simply share with others that my career so far has been about happy accidents. An opportunity would present itself and I was open-minded enough to take a peek and even jump in head first when things felt right. Looking back, I've always been a bit of a risk taker when I transitioned from sales and operations to human resources because someone believed in me 14 years ago. Another happy accident.

Over the course of a person's career, there are a handful of critical moments. On Monday marks the 4th critical moment in my career thus far. What started as a networking and talking shop about HR through a mutual connection quickly escalated into a conversation about joining an organization. "So your company focuses on using technology innovation and story telling to motivate and maximize a person's capability at an organization? So that they can innovate more for both personal and company growth?" The company's mission was in complete alignment to what I had stated years back during a headline exercise with LinkedIn. The desires and motivation of what I believe in with what the company was trying to achieve felt like a bonfire ready to burst. Despite my curiosity and interest, I told them no as the role wasn't in alignment with where I was in my career. I thought let's stay in touch as the timing isn't right.

By stating where I am in my career and what I was seeking in the next opportunity, I was able to honor myself. There's a saying which goes something like this, "In order to best serve others, first work on yourself and meet your needs so that you have the capacity and energy to serve others."

To my surprise, the company stepped up to the plate and provided an opportunity that I could not turn down at this point in my career. It will most likely be the most challenging work to date. I'm leaving a stable organization with great people to pursue an opportunity with higher risk and greater potential for return. Most importantly, I get to align my mission statement and intention with an organization that's trying to achieve similar goals on a larger scale.

At the end of the day, do you want to live a life where you wanted to but didn't? I have no one else to answer to except myself when it comes to my decisions. So here's to looking ahead, a bit scared, a bit excited, and a whole lot of thankfulness. Time for the next chapter!