WHAT I CHOOSE TO LIVE EACH DAY WITH
Each year on January 1st, I reserve at least half of that day for reflecting on the last year and how I want to move forward in the upcoming year with goal setting, dream making, & vision board creating. I love this day for SO MANY reasons and have made it into such an event in my life, that I now treat it like a holiday right up there with Christmas & New Year’s Eve activities! And trust me, if you know me already or once you do get to know me through here, you will understand how much I LOVE all things Christmas! If I place this right up there teetering 2nd or 3rd place to Christmas, then you know this day of intentionally dreaming about my future is incredibly important to me!
One piece that I added to this years “Amanda’s Personal Holiday” ritual of the things I do on the 1st of the year is picking my word for the year. What’s a word for the year? This word I pick encompasses what my overarching goal and/or feeling is that I want to integrate into my everyday life. And believe me, by picking just one word, that makes it almost impossible to forget it. (Fun Challenge: Try it yourself for the remainder of this year and pick your word!)
The word I picked for the entire year of 2015 is INTENTION. I love this word and that I have made this the theme to my year, where I want my focus to be, and the best daily, yet simple reminder of what I’m striving for. It’s a guide post to the way I live my life each day and how I fit all the many puzzle pieces of my life together – all with pure intention.
This principle of intention is the principle that rules my life. Being intentional is a conscious, daily, moment to moment way to connect to you. How many times have you spent a day with no intention and dilly daddle through the day only to get to the end of your day lying in bed, not being able to recall most of what even happened to you that day? Goodness! I definitely had the happen to me in the past! Does it feel like you just missed out on a day of your life? A day that could have been so incredible if you would have taken the time to live it with more intention than letting it pass you by? I used to think that way, but now I can honestly witness that living with daily intention is the best game changer that I have chosen for my life.
So how do you do it right? How do you get started and live each day of your life with a little more intention than what you’re used to?
Here are 3 easy beginner steps to living daily with more intention and more on purpose in your life:
∗Set an intention each morning when you wake up. It can be while you are in the shower trying to wake yourself up each morning, while you’re standing in line at your favorite coffee shop waiting to order your go to mocha, or even while you are riding the elevator up to work. It doesn’t matter where or how you do it, but just do it. (I started doing it by writing it out on a post it note that I would carry around with me throughout the day.)
An intention can be as simple as: I want to clean my kitchen tonight, I want to start a certain project at work today, or I want to take time to plan a dinner date with a friend at some new restaurant we haven’t been to. Or it can be based on how you feel or what you want to learn about something. It could be I want to be more curious today and ask 3 questions to three different people at work and in my personal life that I normally wouldn’t. Your intention each day is YOUR choice and your choice alone.
∗Think about the activities and events on your to do list for each day. What is the purpose of them? Why are they important to you? Take time to think about this before you go do them. This could be as simple as going to hang out with one of your girls that night and you set your intention as wanting to know more about them and how they are feeling about something that just happened in their life. Or you just want to be with them that night and hang -> the intention could be as easy as I just want to relax and forget about stress with my best girlfriend for one evening.
This may sound silly at first, but you know what? I do it. I do it every time I go to something in my planner. I set the intention for myself of what I want to feel or gain from that experience. It is SO much more meaningful to me afterwards and I feel like my relationships have grown and we’ve truly connected.
∗PLAN -> Pull out that gorgeous planner of yours that you love and intentionally plan your life of purpose. What do you want, why do you want that, and how will you get there? Be intentional about your life and plan for all the fantastic things you will experience if you intentionally choose to make it happen! I get excited just thinking about that right now!
These are all easy steps to begin taking in your life right away. And you know what the cool part is? They not only work, but they become second nature to you where you naturally think about the whys and the importance of each puzzle piece in your life. I do this and now it’s a part of how I live every single day! It’s not a burden at all! Instead it leaves me feeling incredibly connected to my days and fulfilled by how I choose to live them with the choices I make. You’ll enjoy the shift in your life too! I promise it’s absolutely worth it. Let me know how this goes for you! Contact me at hello@amandabeilke.com!
Hugs & Mochas,
Amanda
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I love everything you are saying here! I want to be more intentional in my day to day routine!