Living each day by intentional action is tough, and it’s easy to get side-tracked and pulled away from what matters. The hustle and bustle of life have a way of clouding our vision with things that are not important. Society has a way of making things seem urgent or important, but the truth is that you already know what matters. The question is, what are you doing to sustain it? Being intentional means living with conviction in keeping the most important areas of your life as priorities.
Start by taking some time to answer these questions:
- What makes you happy? What do you like to do?
- What is important to you? What are the top 3-5 priorities in your life?
- When do you feel most alive and excited?
- When are you most active? What are you doing in those times?
- If you had a free 24 hours, how would you spend that time?
- What do you for yourself daily, weekly, monthly?
- What do you do to recharge the relationships that are most important to you?
Does your current routine align with the things that matter? For example, if you love to write but you are working two jobs to make ends meet and not making the time every day to at least keep a journal, then your passion is not aligned with your life. Are there areas that you can remove or reduce to make time for the things that matter?
In most cases, the passions don’t appear in front of you and magically open doors of opportunities. People who are living out their passions and their purpose took intentional action towards those goals every day. They had to sacrifice in other areas to make dreams a reality. They had to walk through difficult times and find the reason to stay focused even when it would be easy to give up.
It’s not always easy to do what is necessary, but it is worth it. Giving up 30 minute of sleep to spend time writing every day will be worth it when you publish your first book. Sacrificing that last TV show of the night for sleep so you can start your day with your work out will be worth it when you realize you’ve lost 20 pounds. Working part-time to make ends meet while you build a resume and a following doing what you love will be worth it when you open the doors to your own business.
The truth is that if it matters enough, you WILL find a way. Everyone can find an excuse; the easy way is always enticing, but it is not as rewarding. It takes courage to find just one reason with conviction that will lead to intentional action every day.
Be courageous. Be intentional. Be you.
The E.I. Insider 