The Time is Now For Living a Life of Intention

By Jackie White

Many of us are currently under quarantine to some extent with the coronavirus sweeping our country. This tragedy can be a blessing in disguise because it has given us the time to slow down and assess what is really important in life. Living a life of intention is looking at what should be your priorities and making room for them first before anything else.

It means taking a step back and looking at living the life we want to live. That means thinking, prioritizing and choosing to make some shifts in our current life situations. There might be some hard choices to be made or difficult conversations to be had, but ultimately you will feel more aligned with the life you have always wanted to live.

Where to Start?
To begin, you must assess your current life situation. To do that we have to look across the different balance areas of life and consider how we are doing in each of the areas. Vishen Lahkiani in his book, "The Code of the Extraordinary Mind", has identified 12 of these areas of balance we should consider.

1. Love Relationship: How happy are you in your romantic relationship?
2. Friendships: How strong is your support network?
3. Adventures: When was the last time you tried something new?
4. Environment: What is the quality of your home, work, space that you live in?
5. Health and Fitness: What is your physical and health condition?
6. Intellectual : Are you a lifelong learner?
7. Current Skills: Are there skills you have been meaning to work on or acquire?
8. Spiritual Life: Are you connecting to a power greater than yourself?
9. Career: Are you enjoying your chosen career? Is it growing or stalled out?
10. Creativity: Do you spend time being creative?
11. Family Life: How are you feeling about your family connections?
12. Community: Are you volunteering or contributing in your community?

 
​After some consideration of these Balance Areas do the following:

1. With each of these areas, rate your level of satisfaction. 
2. Take it a step further and identify what would move the satisfaction needle higher? 
3. Prioritize your top three areas that need attention. 
4. Develop goals for those areas with measurable results and timing.

Oh yes, you caught me, I just snuck goal setting in there, too! The fact is, stuff doesn’t get done without a distinct plan of action and that means well-crafted goals. For more help on developing your goals you can grab our DreamChaser Goal Setting Worksheet here: 
https://lp.constantcontact.com/su/DO2xnDo/becomeadreamchaser

For further ideas on how to begin living life more intentionally, try the following:

Live life in gratitude: Being grateful for what you have makes what you have enough. Do this daily by identifying 3 things you are grateful for and why.

Define your ideal day...and live it: What would it look like? Who does it include? Dream it and then do it more often than not!

Quiet your mind: This is time for you to rest your mind and hear what your heart is saying. Do this daily for 3-5 minutes or more!

Take small actions daily to form positive habits: Identify a few small actions you take, like walking for 10 minutes daily and watch how those tiny habits add up into super, life-changing habits!

Enjoy today: Don’t pass up today for what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow. Take time to be mindful everyday and breathe in the life you are living right now.

Take the time now. You have the time now to choose to live life with intention, and you will find that life doesn’t have to be so crazy and chaotic. Choosing to live intentionally will never be something you will regret; in fact, it may be the most important decision you have ever made. ​

Shine On!