Living with Intention : Chosen Course

Live with Intention

It has become my personal motto, and the core of my work through Chosen Course. Why? Because it’s become too easy to live on autopilot with a life full of activity and devoid of meaning.

We run from task to task, place to place, and assume that’s what life is supposed to be about … just getting things done. After all, that’s what we were told by the all the “Time Management” experts of the 20th century, right? “How can we do more in less time?”

Finally, we’ve hit the wall. We simply cannot fit anything more into our days, and cramming more activities into the day hasn’t really lead to the happiness and sense of accomplishment that we were expecting. Rather it’s lead us to exhaustion, imbalance, a sense of being always “on,” and guilt about rest and downtime. While I would imagine that this was not the intention of the 20th c. Time Management experts, that has been the result. Which is why I know that it’s time for a change.

We need a new standard against which to measure ourselves, a new goal to focus on. I believe that “Living with Intention” is that goal.

So, what are the hallmarks of a life lived with intention?

Focus on your Power to Choose

Intentionality is about choice. You decide what’s important to you. You decide what deserves your attention and what does not. You decide which consequences you can live with, and which outcomes you want to work toward. To live with intention means that you are “at cause” making your own decisions about your life and giving up any sense of being a victim of circumstances.

Does that mean you always get what you want? No, of course not. Having just taken a tour at The Breakers, one of the Vanderbilt mansions in Newport, RI, I learned that they lost four of their seven children. Is that something any of us would choose? Of course not. But, what you choose to do with what happens is what matters. That’s the true measure of living with intention. Choose to grieve, choose to strive, choose to become a beacon of possibility for others around you. What matters is what you choose to do.

Aware of the Future, while Honoring the Present

“What will I create? Where do I choose to go in my life?” These are questions focused on the future and creating the outcomes that you desire. However, to answer these questions you might also be asking “What matters to me? What do I value most?” These are questions about the present and your values.

Living with intention allows you to move towards a desired outcome, but it equally requires that you not sacrifice today for tomorrow. In my book Inspired Action I wrote about both knowing your destination and infusing meaning in the journey. This teaching is at the heart of living with intention, because while you’re no stranger to hard work (what entrepreneur or ambitious person can be), we also must learn how to honor our limits, to care for our impact on those we love, and to know that it’s the cycles of stress and rest that will bring us to our desired outcome most effectively. In other words… We cannot sacrifice today if we desire a better tomorrow.

Measure by Outcomes and Progress, Not by Number of Tasks Done

Doing 10 things on your tasks list is no where near as valuable as doing 1 thing that really moves you forward and matters to you. In living with intention, you choose to let go of “more” as the measure of success. It’s not about doing more little things to fill your day. Rather have you done the things that move you toward the outcomes you care about. Have you started giving your priorities their due? Have you done what matters rather than just “what’s there to do?”

This approach is another part of the underpinnings of my Inspired Action method. By choosing one task each day that is your priority and committing to complete it, you are putting your priority first and ensuring that what matters to you and moves you toward your desired outcome is given attention. That is far more important that ticking off a mountain of little items that are the packing peanuts on your Master Task List.

Let Go of Living in Reaction Mode

It has become too easy to move through every day just reacting to what happens around us. I heard a horrifying statistic that on average people are checking their email 30-40 times per hour. That’s every two minutes!!! Which means that the average person is likely using their email to decide what to do next. We need to stop using our email as a task list. This constant email checking is the antithesis of living with intention because it means that rather than choosing your actions intentionally according to what matters most to you, you are living in your inbox and reacting to whatever someone else is asking of you.

Email is a great form of communication. It has brought our world into ever closer connection with each other. However, it’s also probably the #1 form of distraction from what matters each day. Putting our focus on living with intention means that we must learn to break the constant email checking habit and replace those actions with reviewing our Master List. What do we choose to do next? Not what does our email tell us we should do next.

To help me become even more accountable for how much time I’m getting distracted into my email and other platforms, I’m going to give RescueTime a try. After all, we can all use an accountability check to make sure we’re staying “on course.”