Living intentionally is nothing more than setting a purpose and establishing a plan and direction for various areas of your life. It is the opposite of living life on autopilot and is the difference between going on a journey with a sense of the destination versus leaving your house without a plan. This post is to help us think about how to bring more purpose into our lives and to consider ways to define intentional living for ourselves.
Before we go any further, it is important to understand that intentional living does not mean trying to live a perfect life, and it certainly does not mean we will avoid life’s ups and downs. However, it can help us increase the chances of arriving at our desired destination, whether that’s a greater physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual place or a specific personal goal.
Intentional Living Defined
Intentional living starts with having a vision of specific outcomes you want for your life. Then, it is sustained by aligning your actions and decisions with that destination.
As mentioned earlier, intentional living is choosing to not live on autopilot and to set a direction and plan for your life. Moreover, intentional living allows us to bring purpose into our lives by simply choosing to live purposefully.
Learning to be more intentional is a daily practice and is not always easy. Honestly, it is a hard discipline to develop, but it is an important one to cultivate.
There are four essential areas of our lives that we should consider exercising more intentional living: our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual practices. These create the foundation for all the decisions and daily actions we take. They enable us to be more intentional about how and where we spend our time and what we choose to pursue with that time and energy.
Focus on the Details
Life can get so busy. It is challenging to slow down and ensure that our actions are moving us in the direction of our goals. However, busyness doesn’t equal productivity. It is possible to be productive, but in a direction that is misaligned with our goals and desired outcomes. Think negative productivity versus positive productivity.
When chasing a dream or goal, it is easy to get caught up in the big picture and lose sight of the small details that help us get there. Don’t get me wrong, focusing on the big picture is helpful and important; it provides us our WHY and reminds us of the longer-term outcome(s) we are working toward. Thinking about the big picture can keep you optimistic, hopeful, and focused on everything you need to do to keep moving forward.
However, intentional living requires us to keep our eye on the big picture and on the small details.
Maybe this is why we were designed with one brain and two eyes, two ears, hands, and feet. It takes the brain to cast the vision, but it takes twice the effort and intentional use of our energy and action to realize that vision. Bringing more purpose to your life requires keeping one eye on the big picture and the other on the details.
Plan Out the Journey
Intentional living is like typing in a destination on a GPS, including where you plan to stop along the way. It also includes planning out the itinerary when you get to your destination. Yes, things may happen that alter your plans, and it may take you longer to get there; however, planning increases the chances of getting to your destination.
This is the same for living with purpose and intention. We set an outcome and goal, make plans, and start moving in that direction, yet stay flexible for life’s unforeseen circumstances.
When life causes us to pivot, intentional living looks like rerouting. In the end, it may take more time, but we still make progress toward our goal. Non-intentional living looks like leaving the house without a destination, and hoping that you magically arrive there.
Aligning our actions with our goals
So, what are the details we need to focus on to live more intentionally?
There are two categories: our actions and our thoughts.
If you want to gain more knowledge, you have to be intentional about consuming information and drawing out the lessons from the experiences in your life. If you want to get in better shape, you have to be intentional about spending time exercising and watching what you eat. If you want to increase your earning potential, you have to be intentional about how you do your work and how you are refining your expertise.
Reflect:
- If you took an inventory of your actions, do they move you closer to your goal or do they take you away from the destination?
- Do your actions and thoughts reflect the positive, improved version of yourself you are striving for?
- Are you spending time planning your actions or are you just moving on autopilot and hoping for a miraculous outcome?
Increase your chances of success
Sometimes I have looked back and wondered if I could have achieved certain goals sooner if I had just been a little more intentional with my time, energy, and actions. I also think about all the limiting beliefs that I wish I tackled sooner. But as they say, hindsight is always 20/20.
Nevertheless, we can learn from the past and practice exercising more intentions going forward. The last thing we want to do is limit our success and personal development solely because we did not try or because we did not pay attention to our own actions. Our actions are one of the things in our locus of control.
We cannot control the future, but we can increase our chances of success by being intentional about how we live.
But, what if you don’t like being deliberate?
Have you ever had a moment in life when you wish you read the fine print or disclaimers? No, just me. Well, if you have ever had those moments, you know how important it is to slow down and always read the fine print before signing any document or signing up for anything.
Reading the fine print takes a few minutes longer, or may even require more time, but it can save you resources and pain in the long term. There are few things more annoying than experiencing a curve ball because you didn’t pay close enough attention to the details.
Some of the hurdles and pitfalls we experience in life are because we are moving too fast and/or not making time to examine our actions (aka. paying attention to the details).
Paying attention to details takes time and patience; however, success lives in the details of our thoughts and actions.
Where should I focus my intentional living?
Actions: Are there obvious actions you are neglecting? What can you do to be more intentional in this area of your personal life and relationships?
Direction: Sometimes we need to be intentional about whether the direction we are moving in works for us. This may mean that our journey looks different from everyone else’s, and that’s OK. Sometimes we have to embrace what makes us different and accept that our life has its own authentic journey. Are you moving toward a direction you set or are you living out someone else’s vision for your life?
Thinking: Negative thinking is one of the biggest life, goal, and dream killers. If we are not intentional about examining our thoughts, negative thinking can eventually consume us. We have talked about this on the blog before so I will share some posts below for you to check out.
Intentional living can help you bring more purpose to your life
Not living intentionally can cost us time, money, resources, energy, and even our goals (in the long term if we don’t change). It can only benefit you to take some time to examine the areas of your life that matter the most to you. We will make mistakes and experience setbacks, but at least we can try to reduce and/or avoid mistakes that we have the most control over.
What areas do you need to go back and pay a little more attention to?
Affirmations:
- I live intentionally.
- I take time to align my actions with my goals.
- I welcome the things that will help me improve and am willing to let go of the actions and thoughts that no longer serve me.
To receive more from The Life Me Blog, subscribe below:
life/me. 