It can be easy to fall into living life on autopilot.
Day in day out doing the things you should or have to be doing even when it’s not what you want to be doing. Before you know it your wondering where time has gone and how you’ve ended up here.
You are always creating your results even when it doesn’t seem like it. Not doing things is the act of choosing to not have it.
Not going for a promotion at work because you might fail is already failing. No matter the reason you are avoiding something you are creating the result of not having it.
You are going to be living your life. Why not make it into what you want it to be?
To change the results you have you have to change how you are living your life.
Take control through intentional living.
What is intentional living
Intentional living is choosing what you want your life to look like and only doing things that support that vision. It’s not letting life happen to you but making it happen for you.
Related Read – What is Intentional Living
Why Live Intentionally
Before you start doing the work you need to look at why you are starting this journey.
You are not damaged and do not need to be fixed. This is a fact.
Intentional Living helps you drive your life to the destination you want. While knowing that destination won’t be without its own problems and issues.
You can’t run away from life or the problems in it.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t build a life you want. It means that you will always live the human experience and it will be half good and half not as pleasant. We call it the 50/50 split.
You are going to experience the bad parts anyways why not do it in a life you love.
5 Steps to Living Intentionally
Here’s how to live intentionally if you aren’t sure where to start. You may not yet know what your ideal life looks like.
No problem, you will know that and how to get there once you follow the steps.
Become Aware
The first piece is being aware of how you are choosing to live your life right now. What does your day consist of?
What results do you have in your life and how did you get them?
Our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves are a major driving force in our life. There are ones that you have been using that made your life the way it is. Find the ones that aren’t serving you so you can start to address them.
Bringing awareness to the true cause is the first step to change anything. It can also be one of the most uncomfortable.
Be kind to yourself while doing this work. You should not be shamed or upset with yourself for the life you have. Just take responsibility for what you have created and know you have the power to go forward.
Related Read – The belief you have in you
Related Read – How your thoughts create your feelings
Create a Vision
What does your ideal life look like?
Consider all the main areas of your life. Break your life down into what makes sense for you but some of those areas could be:
Health (weight, food, exercise, mental)
Relationships (with your parents, kids, partner, friends)
Career (including business)
Money (debt, income, philanthropy)
Spirituality/Belief (religion or other beliefs)
Romance (connection)
Environment (where you live, what you live in, décor)
Let your mind go to your dream life and what each of those categories would look like. Get specific and into the nitty gritty. Describe to yourself an ideal life where everything is perfect for you.
This is about what you want your life to look like. Shake off what you have been told you want or should be doing. There is no “right” answer to these questions just your answers.
Lift your judgment even from yourself. Nothing is off limits. Dream big even if it seems impossible right now.
Make a Plan
It would be nice to create your description of an ideal life and have everything fall into place. Alas, that is not how life works.
Don’t let this step scare you away. You don’t have to know each step you need to take to get to the end result. You can look at where you are and where you want to go. There is something you can do now that will move you one step closer.
Once you reach that step the next one will become clear.
Think about what you can do today that will support you getting the life you want.
Planning out some categories will be easy. You already know what you need to do.
You just need to implement in your life.
Do The Work
No one can do this for you.
Writing it down and making a plan are the beginning. Next is getting it done.
Consistently decide that your life is going to be geared towards the life you want. Anything that doesn’t support that just won’t happen.
It won’t make it on your calendar unless it is for your dream life.
You are committing to yourself. This is the most important commitment in your life.
Changing your life requires massive action. This means you keep taking action until you have the result you want. There is always something else you can do.
Evaluate & Repeat
You can lose awareness. Your vision can change. Your plan may need adjusting because the work hasn’t gotten the results you expected.
None of this is a problem. This doesn’t mean anything has gone wrong.
It means you are a human living a human experience.
Set a time period for you to evaluate the results you are getting. Some areas it will make sense to evaluate on a weekly basis while others a quarterly basis will be ideal.
From a big vision perspective, I create a timeline of 10 years, 5 years, 1 year, and 1 month. I revisit my big timelines, 5 & 10 years, on a yearly basis. The 1 year I look at quarterly and the 1 month I look at weekly. Start with a breakdown that feels good to you.
Breaking things down into smaller pieces makes them more digestible for our brains.
Things to Remember
- Life is made up of many days and even more hours. This is a process and one that takes time.
- You cannot fail at it. If, you get off track you don’t have to catch back up. You are right where you are supposed to be and you can pick up from there.
- You are allowed to change your mind at any time. Make sure that why you are changing your mind feels good to you.
- Failure is inevitable. You will have to fail before you succeed. Failing means you are one step closer to where you need to be. You’ve eliminated something that won’t work for you.
- Other people don’t have to agree with what you are doing.
- No one else has to understand why you want what you want.
- The only person that controls your results is you.
- There is never anything wrong with you. You can want to be different while loving yourself the way you are.
- Be kind to yourself always.
Final Note –
Living an intentional life will give you so many benefits. There is not a downside to it.
Don’t let life keep passing you by. Be the disruption that you need.
Consciously choose to support your dreams. Your ideal life is within your reach and you are 100% capable of creating it.