What is the point of anything that we do?
I know that sounds morbid but seriously, do you even recognize half of the things you are doing throughout your day?
Often times throughout our days and lives we are acting unconsciously or mindlessly. This means we operate on autopilot, engaging in familiar behaviors and being influenced by external factors that don’t necessarily make us feel good or aligned with ourselves.
In order to create a meaningful life, we must act intentionally with who, where, and what we are our giving our time and energy.
If your goal is to live a life that feels aligned with who you are or who you want to be, you might want to keep reading because we are about to learn how to live an intentional life (aka the life of your dreams).
What does it mean to live intentionally?
Intention itself is the creation of a desire, outcome, or idea through deliberate action, focus, and mindfulness also known as consciousness.
At the most basic level, living intentionally is aligning yourself with the life that you want to live.
If you want to live intentionally you first have to understand what drives you in your desires and what makes you feel good.
Basically, you need to figure out your why.
- Why are you working in your current profession?
- Why are you with your partner?
- Why do you enjoy x, y, and z?
Our desires, emotional responses, and behaviors are often influenced by a subconscious motivator or your why. When you lose touch with what is motivating you, it’s easy to fall into patterns that don’t feel good but are simply familiar.
A great way to align with what motivates you in life is by developing an understanding of what you value in your life.
How to determine your values
Think about your daily life for the past week or month and assess the things that made you feel good and the things that didn’t. I recommend creating a list where on the left you list the ‘positive’ things that brought energy to your day and on the right the ‘negative’ things that may have drained you of energy.
For example:
Positive
- Went for a walk in the park
- Talked to a family member on the phone
- Watched the sunset
- Planned ‘To-Do’ list at the beginning of the week
- Completed a team project at work
Negative
- Skipped the gym
- Spent hours on social media mindlessly scrolling
- Room was messy
- Went to bed late
- Plans with friends were canceled
From here, notice any patterns between the two sides that stand out to you. For example, you felt good when you planned your to-do list at the beginning of the week and felt stressed when your room was messy. A possible value could be organization! You enjoyed connecting with a family member over the phone but were disappointed when plans with friends were canceled, another value could be relationships.
Your values can be anything that feels true to you! There are no good, bad, right, or wrong values- they are unique to who we are, and identifying those values allows us to create a life that aligns with us individually.
Create a list of your values, you may have 7 or you may have 15! To make it easier, try to narrow the list down to your top 5.
If you need some guidance, below I have listed 30 possible values to choose from, or feel free to create your own!
Create intentional actions based on values
The most important step is taking these values and figuring out how to turn them into an actionable step that you can incorporate into your daily life. These value-based actions and habits create an outline for how to live intentionally. When you know the things that are important to you and the ways in which you can feed those aspects of yourself, you are able to align with the powerful force of intention.
Some possible actions for the value of ‘organization’:
- Dedicate one day of the week to cleaning the house
- Plan/create your week’s to-do list
- Set a reminder on your phone to remember an important task
- Place a calendar on your wall to fill with important upcoming activities
Some possible actions for the value of ‘relationships’:
- Call a family member or friend just because!
- Ask a friend to meet up for a walk or a coffee
- Have a meaningful conversation with your partner before bed
- Spark up a conversation with a stranger
I recommend creating multiple options for each value so that you develop a better understanding of how you can incorporate this value into your daily life in many ways!
Putting what you’ve learned into practice
No two days are the same and there are different ways to intentionally feed your values. The key is to find balance & incorporate things into your life that excite you and ground you deeper into both who you are, and the present moment. Intentional living is consciously choosing the habits, behaviors, and experiences you engage in, that align with your values or what’s important to you.
When we align with our values and choose to live intentionally we are becoming mindful of the choices we make and how they influence the quality of our lives.
Now that you have a better understanding of yourself and your values you can bring intention into the rest of your day, and hopefully, the days to come!
