Living A Life of Intention

“Oh my gosh, I’m so hungry!  I haven’t had time to eat all day!” I totally couldn’t relate to the above quote that a friend recently shared as we waited to hear our children’s chorus concert. Didn’t have time to eat? That just didn’t make sense to me. I don’t know about you, but my stomach lets me know when it is time to eat, and it reminds me often! Oddly enough, I heard several versions of this statement for the next week from clients and friends… One person had been too busy to eat; another had to stay up until 1:00am getting things done. And yet, another couldn’t remember the last time she had exercised, as she had been too busy. Lastly, a friend said she missed talking to me, but… You guessed it! She had been too busy. I have a confession to make. Fifteen years ago, I was one of those women…  too busy to exercise or to connect with family and friends, staying up too late to get things finished, etc.  But somehow, even back then, I was never too busy to eat! I was in my early thirty’s going in a hundred different directions, and I remember thinking, “Is this really all there is to life?” Wake up, get ready, get kids ready and go… Go to work, go to school, just go until it is time to pick everyone up. Then cook, clean, bathe, fall into bed exhausted, only to wake up and repeat.  It wasn’t a horrible life. It just always felt like maybe something was missing.  Maybe this wasn’t how it should be? My heart raced from being over caffeinated and stressed out by my daily to-do list that only grew and grew. One year for Christmas, I received the book, Take Time for Your Life, by Cheryl Richardson. Even though I didn’t finish reading it until 14 years later, it did make me start to reflect on a different way to live. I realized that I wasn’t living my life with intention… I was just letting life happen. Making the decision to change your life starts by making a personal choice. Too often, we, especially women, get caught up in all there is to do and forgot that we are truly in charge of our lives. It is pretty easy to understand why. The cost of living continues to go up. We believe we need two incomes to raise a family. Parents work longer hours with fear of layoffs. Some are even picking up extra job responsibilities, grateful that they still have a job. At home and we have activities that we’ve signed our kids up for, and we end up spending our evening hours eating late dinners, assisting with homework and bedtime routines.  Parents are dropping into bed exhausted only to get up and start it all over the next day. Why is it that we feel that we have to be Superwomen? Ask yourself, how do you want to FEEL at the end of day?  What do you want your children to remember about you?  What type of your relationship do you really want to have with your spouse or significant other? To live a life of intention, you have to first figure out what your intentions are!  Write down as many of your intentions that come to mind. Here are a couple of easy ones that lots of people use: I intend to be financially successful. I intend to be physically fit. I intend to be a wonderful spouse, parent, friend, Christian, etc.… Take some time on this, and write down all your thoughts. Then go back and number them 1-5.  ‘Five’ should be “very important” and ‘one’ “relatively unimportant”.  Now take all the intentions that you gave a ‘four’ or a ‘five’ to and write them down on index cards.  Start each sentence with, “I intend…” Picture what each of those intentions means to you, and if you need to, record that information to help you stay focused. Now, here comes the secret… Make your daily life decisions based on your life intentions. One of my life intentions is to be active in my church and community. If I say “yes” to serving on a committee or to a volunteer position, I plan to be engaged and give 100%. This makes it so easy when I am asked to volunteer, serve, etc…  If it doesn’t align with my intentions, and I can’t commit to giving 100%, then I decline. Have some fun with this… After all, we only get one life, so make it the best one possible!  When you are living with your intentions, you are giving and serving with your heart, which can be fun and exciting!  It also gives you permission to decline opportunities that don’t align perfectly with your declared focus and live without that guilt of feeling overcommitted and unable to deliver your promises. It also allows an opportunity for someone else to serve who will bring excitement to the group! So figure out our life intentions, put them in writing, share them with those you love, and start living your most amazing life! – See more at: http://loveyourlife2.com/blog/2014/11/03/living-a-life-of-intention#sthash.MLjEzlF7.dpuf