What does it mean to live with intention?
In our modern world, it’s not always easy to find deeper meaning, fulfillment, or success.
Simply put—it can be difficult to figure out what actually matters, and to decide what we should actually be spending our time doing.
But there’s an answer to this problem.
And to be honest, it’s not even an answer that’s difficult for the average person (you or I) to figure out.
It’s called living with intention.
When you live with intention, it basically means that you live on purpose.
It means that you are choosing to get into the driver’s seat of your life, and make proactive choices to guide you to where you want to be.
However, this process—while simple in theory—isn’t always altogether easy.
So in this post, you’re going to learn 12 tips for how to start living with intention today.
If you want to engage deeper meaning and purpose in your life, and start living your life in a manner that’s going to take you where you truly want to be, then these 12 tips will help you to begin the journey on the right foot.
Let’s dive into it.
12 Tips That You Can Use To Live With Intention Every Day
1. Visualize Your Future
Visualizing your future is absolutely essential if you want to successfully live with intention.
Here’s the thing.
Any ship can set sail in the ocean, right?
However, without a map or a destination, that ship is most likely just going to sail around in circles.
When there’s no destination, you never know exactly where you’re going to end up. In fact, odds are good that you’re probably going to end up nowhere.
And of course, this is bad news.
In our life, it’s actually very similar.
The better we get at visualizing our future, the better we can get at actually figuring out where we want to go in life.
This gives us the power to make intentional choices that will actually take us to the destination we desire.
Need some additional clarification on this? Check out this post: What Are You Aiming For With Your Life?
2. Define What Success Means To You
Part of visualizing your future means defining what success actually means to you.
Of course, we all want to be successful in life.
But what does success actually mean?
This could mean:
- Achieving the job you want.
- Building a successful business.
- Making a certain amount of money.
- Having a certain kind of lifestyle, etc.
It could also mean success in other different categories of life.
For example, maybe you have fitness goals, or maybe you have family goals.
All of this is very individual to each person.
But the important part of it is for you to define what success actually means to you, so that you know what you’re aiming at as an outcome.
Then, you can make proactive choices in life that will help to lead you in that direction.
If you’re not sure how to define success for yourself, read this post: My Goal In Life Is To Be Successful – 6 Steps To Make It Happen.
3. Write Down Your Goals
Visualizing your future and defining success are two incredibly important parts of the puzzle.
However, there are still a few steps that are crucial to completing the journey.
And one of them is writing down your goals.
When you write down your goals, you literally create a roadmap for success that can help to guide you to your desired destination in life.
If you’re just getting started, I would suggest writing down SMART goals to help you figure out exactly what you want to accomplish.
Science tells us that people who write down their goals are actually more likely to succeed than those who don’t.
It actually matters—a lot!
To get started with writing down your goals, choose some kind of planner, journal, or system—and just get started. You can even use a blank notebook, or even an individual sheet of paper when you’re just getting started.
Need some help figuring out which goal-planning system might work best for you? Check out our Goal Planner Resources page.
You can also download my weekly goal-setting sheet, print out a few, and give that a try for free. In addition, you can also sign up for my email list to get my free Goal-Setting Essentials Starter Kit.
4. Start A Journaling Habit
Self-reflection and introspection are also powerful tools that can empower you to live more intentionally in life.
And a journaling habit can help with this.
Writing down your thoughts at the end of the day (and reflecting on the choices you’ve made) can have a powerful effect on how you shape your future.
In the famous words of George Santayana:
“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”
And we definitely always want to be learning from our own history, even on a day-to-day basis, so that we can figure out what actually works (and what doesn’t).
5. Meditate Before You Begin Each Day
Every single day, each one of us has an amazing (even miraculous) opportunity to spend our seconds, minutes, and hours however we choose.
This is an incredible opportunity to live with intention.
However, if we don’t line out our intentions before we begin the day, we’ll be much more likely to actually throw away this valuable time doing things that don’t really matter.
For this reason, it’s always in your best interest to begin each day with a meditation habit.
Really visualize what a successful day looks like, and then make proactive choices to help take you in that direction.
One of my students actually meditates in the form of affirmations on a morning-by-morning basis.
Before he even gets out of bed, he recites the most important things he needs to get done that day—and reminds himself by speaking the words out loud that he’s going to succeed at those things and make his day victorious.
6. Start Cultivating Positive Daily Habits
Most of the actions and activities that we orchestrate on a daily basis are habitual.
And to be honest, there are really only two different types of habits.
- There are the types of habits that lead us toward success.
- And there are the types of habits that lead us away from it.
It’s in our best interest to cultivate more positive habits that’ll help to take us toward the direction of success in our lives.
However, this may mean that you’ll need to invest some time into cultivating and building those habits.
To learn more about how to do this, check out this post: How To Make Goal Setting A Habit In Your Life.
7. Create A Road Map For Success
We’ve already mentioned this once, but it bears repeating.
When you make a plan, write down your goals, and then break those goals down into smaller more manageable steps—you end up with a plan of action that, when followed consistently, will help to lead you to the outcomes you desire.
Hence, why I call goals a ‘roadmap to success.’
However, before you can follow this plan, you need to create it.
This is why actually writing down your goals and making a plan is so important.
To learn how to do this, read this post: 7 Steps – How To Create A Roadmap To Success.
8. Understand Your Priorities
We all have choices to make in this life.
And sometimes, tough choices and options are going to arise as you go about your day.
Sometimes it’s difficult to know what we should choose to do with our time when we don’t have time to do everything.
Therefore, knowing what your priorities are is incredibly important to helping you live an intentional life.
When you have your priorities in order, you’ll always know what actually needs to be done today—and what could possibly be put off to tomorrow if you don’t have enough time for everything.
9. Learn To Say ‘No’
Learning to do the right things is important.
However, learning to say ‘no’ to the wrong things is equally important to the process of being intentional.
When you learn to say ‘no’ to things that either aren’t a priority, or that don’t align with your goals, you set yourself up for powerful success by choosing to only intentionally invest your time into the things that really matter.
And this is incredibly beneficial.
10. Assume Full Responsibility For Your Life
A lot of people fall into a victim mentality throughout the course of their life.
When they face problems, trials, tribulations, or challenges, they tend to blame those things on other people, structures, or circumstances in life.
Granted, not everything that goes wrong in our life is 100% our fault.
However, it’s always in our best interest to take full responsibility for everything that happens to us.
This may feel bad when it forces you to take responsibility for a bad situation in your life.
However, the amazing and beneficial part of this is that once you take responsibility for something, you give yourself the power to change it.
This is a mindset that will help you to live with full intention on a daily basis.
11. Invest Your Time Into Things That Are Meaningful
There are nearly unlimited possibilities for things that we can pursue in life.
So how do you figure out what actually matters?
How do you decide what’s important, and what isn’t?
The answer is to figure out what is meaningful.
What do you actually care about in life?
When given the choice to decide how you want to spend your time and resources, what do you believe is more important?
This could mean having a serious discussion with yourself about what your passion and purpose are.
This could also mean asking yourself ‘why’ you want to accomplish your goals.
Sure, you probably have some goals that you want to achieve for yourself that will help you to make your life better.
But you may also find deeper meaning and fulfillment in life by giving to others, giving back to the community, doing good deeds, etc.
The truth is that we all want to make a real difference in the world.
Humans truly thrive when they have a deeper purpose and greater meaning to their existence.
This is so important, and speaks right to the heart of what it means to live with intention.
12. Practice Gratitude
Life is going to be full of ups and downs.
You’re going to face fantastic victories and discouraging defeats as you travel on your journey towards success.
However, it’s always important to maintain an attitude of gratitude as we move forward in this journey.
When you practice gratitude for all of the good things (and even some of the hard things) in your life, you unlock a powerful intentionality principle that can really supercharge your efforts to create a fulfilling life that’s filled with meaning.
Gratitude empowers us to exist fully in every single moment—to take nothing for granted.
When you live with an attitude of gratitude, you’re actively making the choice to be intentional with how you’re going to leverage your feelings and emotions.
Not only that, but you’re choosing to use them for a positive response to life events instead of a negative one.
This is incredibly powerful.
FAQs
How do you start living with intention?
The best way to start living with intention is to decide what success looks like for you, and to then make a plan to start pursuing it today.
At first, your plans may involve very small steps.
Over time, you may pick up greater momentum.
But here’s the thing.
Decide what you want in life, and start living for it today.
This will help you to begin your journey on the path toward true intentional living.
What does it mean to move with intention?
When you move with intention through life, it basically means that you’re actively making choices on a day-to-day basis that take you toward what you truly desire (according to your plan) rather than away from it.
It means that you’re adhering to the order you created when you wrote down your goals and chose to pursue them.
This is the difference between order and chaos.
When we let chaos dictate our actions, what we’re actually doing is drifting aimlessly through life.
It’s so important to find your purpose in life, to hone in on it, to focus on it, and to move toward it with intentionality.
How do you do everything with intention?
The best way to do everything in your life with full intentionality is to start writing down your goals, developing a journaling habit, and meditating every day before you begin the day’s activities.
These things, when done properly, will help you to truly unlock the full power of your purpose-driven intentionality.
What does intentional living look like?
An intentional life is a life lived on purpose.
It’s a life characterized by order and a structured plan of action to help take you in the direction that is the most meaningful to you.
This is much different from a life lived in chaos, where you simply react to things in life—constantly exerting energy and spending resources without a concrete plan for how you’re going to reach success.
Conclusion
There you have it.
12 steps for living with intention.
All that’s left now is to start checking each one of these items off the list, and making them a part of your daily action plan.
It really matters.
When you live with intention, you give yourself the greatest odds of succeeding.
This is why it matters so much, and this is why I encourage anyone who wants to give themselves their best chance for success in life to start turning your dreams into goals, writing down those goals, and creating a roadmap to success.
You can do it.
I believe in you.
Now get out there and make it happen.
Best wishes…
Jay O’Donnell