Intentional living means to make deliberate decisions and live with thought. It’s no longer going with the status quo or simply doing something because you’ve always done it. Instead, you’re being asked to think about how any task, relationship, habit, or purchase will affect you and those around.
With the start of a new year it’s the perfect time to make space in your day to think about the intentions you’d like to set for 2021.
Write Down Your Values
I often start this process by writing out my 3-5 life values and create intentions in each area. My values include
- Family/Community
- Health
- Creativity
- Sustainability.
You’ll notice that work isn’t on this list. Because work isn’t a value. Being of service to my community and clients is a value. Finding new ways to be creative in my work connects back to my values. Creating limits to work to ensure my health is a value. and of course, bringing sustainability into my brand connects with my values. Work itself, isn’t a value.
Take a moment to think about what means the most to you in this life. What are themes, ideas, or desires that continue to fill your heart. What does your attention go to? What do you crave more of? Within these thoughts, are your values. The things that meant the most to you.
Create Intentions around your Values
Write down your values and then begin to think about how you want to intentionally live around these values this year. Do you want to learn something new? Do you want to spend more time on one of them? Maybe you’re ready to build a new habit around health or family or creativity. Once you have your intentions around your values, write down 1-3 small ways you can move towards these intentions daily/weekly/monthly.
For example, my goal this year is to mass-produce art so that I can hone my skills and explore new techniques. This aligns with my value of creativity and to do this, I need to work on my art every day. A small way I can do that is to commit to 10-minutes a day, no matter what, to creating art in some way. It’s a small step that I can actually accomplish because 10-minutes really isn’t that much time. Of course, if I do more that’s great, but I’m building a habit around this intention so the goal is only to hit 10 minutes.
Intentional Living in 2021
With your values in hand and your new intentions for 2021 around these values put them in a spot where you’ll see them every day. Remind yourself of what you are working towards and who you want to be when you come back to this same practice 1 year from now. You don’t need a list of 100 things you want to do differently. Living intentionally means curating this list, choosing the things that are the most important and focusing on those this year.
This year, take time every day or week to come back to your values and your intentions. Remind yourself of who you want to be and the kind of life you want to create. And then, make decisions that will align with these intentions. And that my friends, is how you live with intention.
