Make Your Habit Being Intentional Every Day

I have been going through physical therapy for my back, trying to reduce my pain and set myself up for some better days ahead.  It is difficult to keep going sometimes, and sometimes I am in more pain because of it but I need to have a long term vision.  I need to be intentional in taking the necessary steps to get better, through the pain and through the difficult moments.  If I wasn’t intentional in the steps I was taking and focused on the end goal I would probably quit

Making progress towards goals takes work, there is no way around it

If we want to accomplish something in our lives or we have a specific goal to accomplish, we will not get anywhere unless we work on it and take the necessary steps to finish.  This is intentionality, and without it, we spend our days toiling away feeling meaningless and unaccomplished.  We risk being stagnant and lifeless.  If you are working just to get through the day or week and letting those around you design your life, you need some intentionality!  If we want to grow and thrive in this world and make real changes to our circumstances and ourselves, we need to be intentional…every day!

Take just one intentional step towards your goal and you have built momentum into your journey

We have talked about setting goals here and about not quitting here and now let’s talk about how to be intentional in every area possible, as well as intentional in the times of your life that you do not want to be.  We all have them, we can have 5 goals lined up that we could accomplish in even a short amount of time focusing but we just can’t get ourselves to take the steps we know we need to take, just another part of the human condition.  Just take one step towards your goal and you have started the power of momentum.  I did a series on how powerful momentum is here and once you have it on your side it takes a lot more to slow you down

Bad habits can lead to bad follow through in our goals

Being intentional takes energy, but if we have goals that are meaningful to us as well as goals we really want to accomplish it should not be so stinking hard to be intentional!  The problem is that we often build habits around ourselves and if we are not careful about it those habits become not following through and not accomplishing the goals we set for ourselves.  If that is you then it is time to make some healthy changes and build some new habits in your life.  Habits that will help you move forward and be successful instead of old habits that might be dragging you down.

Distractions can destroy a plan in just minutes

Once we have built some positive habits in our lives, it just takes some planning and a good dose of follow through.  The old saying that not having a plan is planning to fail can often be true and especially so in this busy and distracted world we live in today.  If we start a day and don’t have an intentional plan on how to succeed there is a pretty good chance that we will end up browsing facebook, instagram, twitter, pinterest and any number of other social media sites that will quickly suck up our time and take away our productivity.  We need to set a plan for our day, our week and even our month.  We need to plan what we want to accomplish each day and when it’s time to take a break.  Plan in some time to go on social media and cut loose from the work but stick to the plan and be intentional about it!

You know yourself and the bad habits in your life, take them into account when planning

One of the biggest things to remember when trying to be intentional in our lives is that you know yourself.  You know your habits and you know what takes you off the path of intentionality and productivity.  Take those things into account when you make your plan, and build in ways to deal with them and work around them.  One of my flaws in intentionality is that I tend to get involved in too many things at once so it may be hard for me to focus on one thing and do it with the quality I expect from myself.  I need to be aware of that and control my urges to take on too much.

The more you plan, the easier being intentional is

Spend some time and think about what things about you might get in the way of you being intentional and then build it into the plan.  Keep in mind the goals I am talking about can be anything from starting a new business to changing something about your life that you feel the need to change.  Not all goals need to be life shattering, but most of them should be life changing.  You know what you need to work on, you know what you need to change so get to it, be intentional, create a plan and remember to take into account your personality quirks!