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Frank lent me this book to make use of the first few days of February I spent waiting in his garage for my car to be finished. Somewhat surprisingly, it has opened me up a little despite some of the over-the-top metaphysical discussions. As with all self-help books, you take away the parts you find meaningful to you and let the rest dispose of itself.

Upon finishing this book, I was amazed at the sort of impact it had on my inner-monologue. The main message is that you create your own reality with your thoughts and actions. While I already knew this, putting it into practice is a little trickier. Sometimes reading a whole book to confirm what you already know is what it takes to put ideas into action.

Like some other books I've read recently, The Power of Intention serves as a reminder to be privy to outside conditions and how they might affect our moods and well being. Eating too much food, overdoing it with caffeine and alcohol, letting loud TVs and music interrupt our peace, and associating with toxic people can have larger effects than we can imagine on how we treat others and view ourselves.

We have to train ourselves to be of the mindset the conditions we want are already present. There is an abundance of goodness in this world, and the only thing that keeps us from seeing it are the thoughts we create. I like that he points out in no uncertain terms that stress and anxiety don't "attack" us as we've been conditioned by society to believe, but we create those feelings from our own worries and self-doubt.

Sometimes we question ourselves, and that's normal, but overall mental strength is rooted in positivity. He mentions the possibility that sometimes you have to think about your unimportance to realize your value. You don't have to walk around with a stupid smile plastered on your face reciting Stuart Smalley 24/7 to be positive. The effort lies more in balancing the good and bad, then having the confidence to act with kindness and good intentions.

Speaking of the word for which the book is titled, the author goes into the meaning of "intention" quite a bit and in a way I didn't expect. He believes we are all connected to the Source, which I interpreted him to mean is sort of an underlying rhythm of the universe that has already decided that good things are in store for us. Contrary to the arguments of many, this goes hand-in-hand with free will.

At one point, he goes into the equation of how much energy there is in the world, and how certain people can combat the negative energy of tens, even hundreds, of thousands of people. To me, it just sounded like someone got off on an existential tear one late night, but if that's how some people want to make sense of the world, bully for them.

Overall, this book inspired some tremendously insightful and useful feelings in me as I start my business and enter a new phase of my life. Oftentimes, I would put this book down feeling like a million bucks, like I could do anything. Even better, the author actually outlines some good ways to actually do the "anything" that your heart so desires. At some point, I'm going to have to give this book back, but in the meantime, I plan to refer to it when needed, and I would consider buying more books from this author.