How To Live Life More Intentionally

Life is a series of unpredictable and unexpected events.

You can plan and have a backup plan for everything that you can imagine.

But, Life has a funny sense of humour and it has a whole lot of tricks up its sleeve.

If you are anything like me, you enjoy knowing what’s going on and following a clear course of action. It doesn’t have to be definite but having an idea of what to expect is a great feeling.

(If you are nothing like this, I am jealous and please teach me your ways).

One thing that you should want from your life is to live a life that is YOURS.

A life that is authentic and aligned with who you are.

A life that you enjoy and can be present in.

But then…

Your phone rings,

An email enters your inbox,

You remember you have dinner tonight with your friends,

Oh! You didn’t text that other person back.

You’re also avoiding that one match on Tinder who has your number now.

Life comes back in full force and your plate is full of so many things you have to do.

You also have goals that you want to achieve, so you need to think of those too.

Once you get everything done and out of the way, then you can be more present and focus on building the life you want.

The reality is life is not going to stop traffic and let you cross.

There will always be something going on that you will need to attend to as a human being in this society. Yet, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be present amidst the rush.

You can live and create a life that you love and enjoy.

And it starts with a simple practice:

Setting intentions.

What is an Intention?

An intention is a commitment to how you want to be, live, and show up in the world. Intentions are more about being than doing. How do you want to be and experience a moment?

Intentions are simple ideals phrased as a statement. They give you the aim and purpose for what you plan to do and achieve.

An example of an intention would be: “I intend to be more present when I go for lunch today with my friend” or “I will focus at my desk today.”

Remember, it’s about how you want to BE and HOW you are doing something. It’s not about WHAT you are doing.

Intentions are statements of what you intend to achieve through your actions. It is commitment at a smaller level that you can control and tap into your inner resources to actualise.

You might be wondering now… how is an intention any different from a goal?

Intention vs. Goals

Goals and intentions are both ways of creating focal points. Focal points that guide you on where to invest your energy and attention. They also give you clarity and direction of where your life is going or how you want your life to be.

Goals focus on where you want to be and what you want in the future. Intentions are focal points for how you want to be in a given moment.

Goals are snapshots of the future and intentions are the ideals of the present moment.

Since your goals are set for the future, you need to take action to actualise those goals. Yet, your intentions are far less about action. They align you with how you want to feel and experience the present moment. They are about the process of working towards your goals.

The great thing about your intentions, unlike your goals, is that they can change. They can change from moment to moment, day to day, week to week and so on. Frequently, changing your goals is not a good thing. You lose clarity and focus and invite uncertainty and chaos into your life.

Your intentions can and should change as you evolve along your path towards your goals and life. Intentions allow you to flow with the ups and downs of life, instead of resisting them. Your intentions tap into your inner strength and willpower.

“One of the most wonderful things about being human is we can choose again at any moment,” AlTai says. Any moment is an opportunity to start fresh with an intention.

Life is a journey and along your path towards your goals, there will be many things you can’t control. Instead of giving up your goals, intentions keep you on the path.

You learn to focus on what you can control and let go of what you can’t. Intentions are a part of the process and we want to enjoy the process.

How To Use Intentions In Your Life

There are four ways that intentions tend to work best:

• Clarity and Agency

• Focus

• Alignment with your values

• Alignment with your goals

Clarity and Agency

To set an intention, you need to decide what you want and how you want to experience life. When you take time to think about how you want to live your life, you gain clarity.

Your brain needs things to be clear for you to work to wonders them. So ask yourself, “How do I want to live my life? What do I want from my life?”

If you don’t have clear intentions, you won’t know what to do or where to start and you will “fall” into entropy. The more entropy you have in your life, the more it expands. In your life, this looks like the confusion and discomfort you feel day to day.

It becomes a mess that keeps getting bigger and bigger; the bigger the mess, the more overwhelmed you feel. Reduce the entropy by finding clarity in your life.

The clearer you become about your intentions, you will begin to design your life. They provide you with the opportunity to participate in your life the way you want.

Setting intentions means you are taking ownership of your lived experience. You take accountability and control of your choices. You become proactive by choosing how you want to live.

You become a more conscious creator of your life than a victim. It exerts your agency and will in your life rather than you taking a back seat and letting things happen to you.

Acting with clear intentions allows you to act with clarity towards what you want. And it can be simple.

One example is working on your laptop: You go onto your lap without intention and open it. You end up on YouTube and going down a rabbit hole. You feel awful because you weren’t productive and wasted time.

Or you set the intention to work for an hour. You open your laptop and sit for that hour doing work or learning. You know what you are doing for that hour and you are clear about it.

An example from my life: Going to the library without any clear intentions. I ended up doing busy work that didn’t move the needle forward in any direction of my life.

But, when I went to the library intending to study for my exams or catch up on lessons, I focused and worked for hours.

Focus and Presence

Seneca in his book On the Shortness of Life:

Our days and lives aren’t short, rather they are long. They feel short because we rush through them and are wasteful in our moments and days.

Time is an abundant quality and we enrich our time by how we utilise it. Intentionally or aimlessly?

The key to being intentional is being aware. Being aware is being conscious of where you place your attention. This is the way you can take control and create your life.

Being present gives you a focal point for your energy. You bring your energy back instead of being pushed and pulled in different directions during the day.

Being present makes life more meaningful and the journey towards your goals more pleasurable and fun. You are enjoying the moments that lead up to the goal and practising gratitude for what you have.

You move from being in lack to gratitude and that is a far better place to work towards your goals.

When you are intentional, you are in control of your focus. Your focus is in the moment: who you are, what you are doing, why you are doing it and how you are doing it.

When you focus, you are more powerful and connected to yourself and what you are doing. With more focus, things get done faster, better, and with less resistance.

Focus and presence transform living life into experiencing it. You slow down and live your days with purpose.

It reminds you that you can choose how you live and frame your days, months, years and life.

Alignment with Your Values

Your values are the strongest sign of what is important to you. They greatly influence your decisions. Whether you are aware or not.

That’s why someone who values comfort will buy a luxurious home and clothes. Someone who values adventure travels and has little need for material possessions.

Intentions are a great way to get in touch with your values and live by them daily. You can align to what feels right to your mind, body and soul and act accordingly.

Being in touch with your values gives you a greater perspective on why you are doing something.

As we stated before, intentions are feeling-based. Setting an intention aligned with your values aligns your actions with your feelings, your heart and your mind, and when those two align, miracles happen. You have a powerful tool for moving forward and achieving your goals.

A small reminder: being in alignment is about inner integrity and coherency. It’s evoking a feeling of peace within and with yourself.

You create a space measured by a balance of what you believe in, what you are interested in, what fills your heart with joy and what gets you out of bed every morning, ready to take action.

Alignment with Your Goals

If you know what you want, it’s easy to move towards it. Life has its ups and downs and when pursuing a goal that is important to you.

Intentions can help maintain the course even when there are challenges. They give you a big view — the goal — and what needs to happen to achieve that goal.

They make the journey more enjoyable and keep us taking action towards the goal. Instead of holding onto it, we get lost in watching it and never take action towards it.

You can even set your goals from your intentions. If you have the desire to be financially free, that’s your intention. From that intention, you can begin to break it down into something tangible.

What does being financially free look like to you?

Is it having $500,000 or earning an extra $3,000 per month?

It could be an investment portfolio of $2 million.

Or not living paycheck to paycheck and having 6 months’ worth of monthly expenses covered.

Whatever it is, your goal will look different to another person who has the same intention of being financially free.

The great thing is that your intentions give you the space to discover and create your own goals.

How to Set Intentions

From now on, everywhere you go, every interaction you have and every action you take, set an intention. This is how you do it.

1. Decide on what you want and write it down. Be clear about what you want to achieve and the results you want from it

2. Outline your values. Remember to identify what is important to you and what aligns with your heart.

3. Practise being aware and conscious. You can do this with hourly reminders to check in with yourself or meditation.

4. Make your intentions positive. State them in “I will” or “I want”, not “I won’t” or “I don’t want”. You are focusing your energy towards what you want, not away from something. They carry two very different energies.

5. Keep them simple, clear and realistically actionable. Clarity is key. You are not going to “work for an hour”, instead you are going to “work on my website or learn about X for an hour.”

6. Let the intention go. Release it. Remember that intentions are a part of the process, they are not an outcome and we want to enjoy the process. Whatever happens, happens and learn to be okay with that. It’s not about perfection, but presence and progress.

Practice these steps and start living a more intentional life.

— Shana.

If you want to create and live a more intentional and fulfilling life,

feel free to book a free consultation call with me and let’s make it happen.