Do you want to live every day with a purpose? Find out how you can live life more intentionally today!
How to Live Life More Intentionally
I think we all get a little bit sick of our lives sometimes. Sometimes we don’t want to step where we’re told to step and jump when we’re told to jump. So, how do we strive to live life more intentionally?
Instead of being a taker, learn to be a maker. Rather than simply taking what life has to offer and rolling with it, imagine what it would be like to make opportunities for yourself, to forge your own path, your own vision, and not be led by others before you. Being a maker means being assertive, being unafraid to take risks and most of all, having a purpose in everything you do.
It’s so easy to go slack on this boat road journey of our lives. It only takes one second of deliberation to let go of the oars and flow along with the stream, but a lot of courage, perseverance and determination to keep ahold of the oars and paddle against the flow.
Time is perhaps our greatest enemy and at the same time, our greatest ally. We watch as days, weeks, months and years pass us by and we question why time goes by so quickly. We tell ourselves that we have tomorrow, that we have the next week, month and year to figure out our problems and find solutions to questions that we do not yet know the answer to.
But what is this culture of waiting? Are we waiting for life to hand us something? Or are we waiting for a miracle that may or may not show itself? Let alone exist?
I am a strong believer in creating opportunities for myself. I don’t believe that miracles fall from the sky or that somewhere out there, life is waiting with a life-changing opportunity on my timeline.
So, instead of sitting on the sidelines, try to grab life by the horns and live the way YOU always wanted to live. After all, that’s the key to learning how to live life more intentionally.
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So, how do you live life more intentionally?
1. Be self-aware
This can encompass all different areas of your life, from the smallest habit to the largest goal.
Learning to be self-aware is the first step to living an intentional life. It’ll make it much easier to recognise the areas where you can improve if you’re aware of your shortcomings.
Try to become a little more self-aware every day just by tuning in and recognising your own emotions. Being able to regulate your own emotions is extremely important in self-improvement and increasing your emotional intelligence. In doing so, you can bring more positivity to your own life and the lives of those around you.
Being able to control your emotions and how you act upon them is a huge step to being more intentional overall. Instead of allowing your emotions to control your behaviour, you’ll be able to decide how you want your emotions to affect you.
2. Keep your life organised
Keeping yourself organised and being aware of where everything is at any given moment in time, can help minimise a lot of negativity that arises from chaos. Being intentional is to purposely make your life better for yourself and being happy with the result.
Being organised can start with the smallest of tasks. Tasks such as keeping your desk clean or your room organised can help you get into the habit of staying organised. From there, you can move onto the harder task of keeping your mind clutter-free.
3. Learn to say no
One of the key ways to living more intentionally is to be purposeful in improving your quality in life. A lot of the time, this means learning how to say no to anything that makes you uncomfortable. Whether it is saying no to someone who asks you for a favour, or a bigger decision such as being unhappy with your current career or degree and actually doing something about it.
Learning to say no is a key way of putting yourself first and one of the most important things you can do for personal growth and development.
Being able to say no shows strength in your character and confidence in yourself to be comfortable with the rejection of others when it doesn’t serve your best interests.
This doesn’t mean that you should always put yourself first for risk of becoming too selfish, but always remember to give yourself time for self-reflection and self-love to make sure that you’re not neglecting yourself to make others happy.
4. Pursue your dreams and goals with a passion
In this ever-changing world, how many times have your dreams changed? How many times have you questioned yourself? And how many times have you told yourself that your dreams are nothing more than an unrealistic fantasy?
Being intentional means being purposeful. And that means being purposeful with chasing your dreams and chasing your goals with the belief that you will achieve them one day.
It is so important to believe in yourself because if you don’t, then no one else will. Believe in yourself, break down your goals, and work towards them with the determination and passion that you had from the very beginning. Have faith in yourself that you are capable of achieving great things, and work towards your goals one step at a time, every single day, until you can confidently say that you made it.
5. Strengthen your mind and body
To obtain the courage and determination needed to achieve the life that you want to live, work towards strengthening both your mind and your body.
This means doing exercises, both mentally and physically, to be strong enough to always move forward regardless of any obstacles or difficulties that you may face. And you will face many challenges, that is without a doubt, but it will be a true testament to your character if you can persevere with your goals to the very end.
So, work on strengthening your mind and body to give yourself every advantage that you possibly can to remain intentional in your everyday life.
6. Practice gratitude
Being able to recognise and identify situations and people that you have gratitude for is an extremely important step in self-reflection and increasing self-awareness.
Just the act of reflecting on events and people that have had a positive impact on your life can aid you in your journey of personal growth and development to help you become a better version of yourself.
Practising gratitude can help you identify more ways in which you can give back to the community and the positive impacts that you could potentially make on those around you. It’ll help you battle feelings of negativity and worthlessness and help you become a more selfless and grounded individual.
7. Seek personal growth
Personal growth is an ongoing and never-ending process we go through in our lives. While it may occur unintentionally, it’s important for you to create opportunities for yourself to learn and develop.
Opportunities don’t just come along every once in a while for you to grasp. You need to actively seek opportunities for improvement to give yourself the highest chance for personal growth in a variety of different areas of your life.
If you know you have some negative qualities that you’re not entirely proud of, do something about them. Set yourself small, achievable goals to work on every day. This could be complimenting someone every day, doing something nice for a stranger or giving yourself enough time to relax and decompress.
8. Don’t put labels on yourself
While it may seem like we put labels on everything and everyone around us, try not to put labels on yourself if you can help it.
In a way, labels are extremely restricting. Imagine if being labelled was like being put inside a box. A box that won’t expand or contract. So, you can grow all that you want, as long as you remain inside that box. What if you wanted to learn new things outside the box? Chase new dreams outside the box? You can imagine how difficult that would be. So, why put any labels on yourself at all?
Embrace the fact that you’re capable of doing anything you put your mind towards. Be brave and try your hand at anything that gets you happy and excited. After all, you only live once.
9. Learn to accept and be proud of yourself
One of the most important steps in moving forward is to accept yourself in your entirety. Learn to accept everything about yourself: your strengths, your weaknesses, your quirks, your faults, and everything that makes you uniquely you.
Your flaws show that you are only human. Of course, it’s a great idea to always be working on self-improvement and personal growth, but that doesn’t mean that you should be ashamed of your faults. Growth only occurs if you have something to grow from. It’s not possible to have no faults and then suddenly see growth.
10. Find the right mindset
Having a healthy and positive mindset is the best way to keep you motivated and inspired to live more intentionally. It makes it so much easier to continuously strive for self-improvement when you’re feeling good about yourself and in the right mindset to do so.
Maintaining the right mindset can sometimes feel impossible. After all, we all experience fluctuations in our emotions. It’s perfectly okay to let yourself just feel all your emotions, but try not to let any negative emotions take over. Often, it takes only one sliver of negativity to ruin an otherwise perfect day.
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Those are a few ways that you can learn to live life more intentionally!
If you have any of your own habits for living more intentionally, leave them down below!
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