Intentional

Intentional living is the practice of making deliberate and conscious choices in order to live a life that is meaningful, purposeful, and aligned with your values.

It means creating a life for yourself that reflects who you truly are and what matters most to you.

 Intentional living helps you create space for peace, joy, connection, creativity and living your life's purpose. Intentional living is all about planning and creating a life you love by intentionally taking action towards the goals and visions that are important to you. Intentional living also means being mindful of how we spend our time, energy, and resources - understanding that every choice matters and has an impact on our lives and the lives of those around us. Intentional living is about creating a life that is both deeply fulfilling and sustainable, so that you can live with purpose and joy for many years to come. By focusing on what matters most and taking intentional steps towards your goals, you can create a life that reflects who you truly are and brings you happiness. Intentional living is the key to creating a life you love. So take the time to plan, be mindful of your choices, and make intentional decisions that will bring you closer to achieving the life you desire. Intentional living can lead to greater happiness and fulfillment.
 
 
 Intentional living is about connecting with yourself and your values, understanding what matters most to you, and taking action to create a life that reflects your true self. Intentional living helps you create balance in your life so that you can live with purpose and joy. When we become intentional about our lives, it allows us to focus on what brings us meaning, to make better use of our time and resources, and to live in a way that honors who we are. Intentional living helps us create the life we want - one filled with joy, connection, passion, and purpose. Intentional living is not just about planning and goal-setting; it’s also about being mindful of how our choices affect our lives and those around us. Intentional living is the practice of taking conscious steps towards creating a life you love. So start today - take the time to plan, be mindful of your choices, and make intentional decisions that will bring you closer to achieving the life you desire. Intentional living can lead to greater happiness and fulfillment - so let's get started!

Here is the link to the planner I discussed in the podcast.

https://amzn.to/3QOIdLi

Transcript

Richard (00:01):

Welcome. You're listening to the Live it full podcast. I'm Richard hanging out in the studio. Today we're gonna talk about intentional living, but first, if you like the podcast, go leave us a five star review. Share us with your friends and family, take screenshots, do whatever you gotta do. Find us on Apple, Spotify Amazon Music, We're there. Just go find us if you haven't, share us with with whoever you have that could listen to this message.

(00:29):

I saw people back in December, they were posting a lot about what their word was for 2023, and I thought, well, I'll jump on that bandwagon because you know, that's what the cool influencers do on social media. We jump on bandwagons and try to copy the people who are successful.

(00:46):

As, as my daddy said, it's all right to be a copycat if you copy the right cat. Anyways, so there is no originality in this, is what I'm saying. But I do think it's important to focus our lives around certain things. Obviously we talk a lot about faith, family, finance, fitness, but today I want to talk about what that word was, and it's something that I've talked about. I don't, I mean, I think pretty consistently since probably 2018 or 19, but it's, my word for 2023 is intentional. And so I was, and, and it just so happened that I was talking to a friend about this, this week and about schedules and how time is so important in that I, I've gotten good at saying no to things.

(01:35):

But 2023 is my year of intention, my goals, my people. You know, it goes back to that faith, family, finance, fitness, because there was a time in my life that I wasn't intentional. And I think so many people fall into this. Maybe it's 95%, I don't know. I think there's those, those standard kind of percentages that tend to be true. You know, that 5% of people do what? 95% won't, and they're the ones who reap the benefits. But I want everybody who listens to this show to be able to be in that 5% because you don't know what you don't know. So I went through life for a long time. So I started our, my business 2011, 12 couple businesses, real estate and insurance. And was I always intentional? Absolutely not. I was flying by the seat of my pants living day to day in sales. It's not a good thing, but you have this mindset of, I'm gonna kill what I need to eat today. Didn't plan for tomorrow, didn't save, didn't, didn't worry about those things. Went to God in a reactive way, not a proactive way in my prayers when something bad happened, went to him.

(02:51):

So 2023 is about intention for me. I feel like I've tried to live that the past few years, but we can always, always improve.

(02:58):

So as you listen to this, I want you to think about what is your word for 2023? We're already 19 days. By the time this, this comes out into the year, it's never too late to start. I don't care if it's December 25th and you wanna start over, start over that day. Don't wait till the first. Don't give up on what's going on. Every day is a new day. But I think I started thinking about living intentionally, obviously it, it goes back to when things kind of spiraled out for me. I think it's so easy to get into this grind of day-to-day life. You know, they call it the rat race, right? It's, and when you think about that, that, that term probably goes back to some, some scientific trials with rats. But we get into this mindset of wake up at whatever time, do this, brush my teeth, blah, blah, blah, get the kids ready out the door.

(03:48):

I get to work, I do this to five, I go home. And all of a sudden, like years pass by and you haven't really accomplished anything that you've wanted to. Sure, maybe you've been successful, maybe life's been fine, but maybe you didn't take time to really sit down and watch the sunset, have a have a cup of coffee, talk to your parents, talk to your friends, reach out to that person, and all of a sudden you may not have time for it anymore because the opportunities are gone. And so the the past years I've, I've focused on intentional living. One thing when we started Littlebit Fool as a brand was, and if you watch this on video and not just on the audio podcast, live It Full logo has living everyday life with purpose. To me, that's intentional. We want purpose in our life, intentionality in what we do.

(04:39):

If you don't have goals, if you don't have things written down, if you don't have a foundation of priorities, you won't ever intentionally live. I mean, that's just the reality of it. And so I found a, I was, I was looking stuff up to prepare for this and to think about what I wanted to say. And Richie Norton had a great quote that said, intentional living is the art of making our own choices before other other's choices make us, I'm gonna say it again cuz I think it's one that's important to remember and write down. Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others' choices make us live intentionally. And how do you do that though? It's easy for me to sit here and say, Hey, you need to be intentional in what you do, but how do you do it? I found a book out there, John Maxwell. I think John Maxwell may be one of the greatest minds of the last few generations with how to live life to the Fullest. He actually has a book out there called Living Intentionally. And so, I mean, I think that that's a, that's a good place to start. Cause I think John lays out so many good things for us in life and business and faith. I think people don't always recognize that John Maxwell's a man of faith. And so it fits so well with my, with our faith, family, finance, fitness.

(06:10):

But nobody finishes Well by accident is one of the quotes from that book. I mean, think about it. Do you know anybody who has been successful who won the race? Maybe literally, maybe figuratively, but that fell across that finish line by accident. I don't know anybody that did. It took being very, very intentional. It's so easy to not be, it's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day. I've gotta do this. We have basketball, we have piano, we have batting lessons, we have softball. We have to meet with this customer. We have to finish this house. We have to do, you know, there's so many things, and don't get me wrong, they're a big part of life. But it's so easy to fall into the trap. This cycle of the mundane, this cycle of rushing through each day to be done with it and not embracing everything.

(07:15):

We're gonna look back in life. I fear and realize, and it's a quote I've heard, but in, but truly realize that it wasn't the big moments that defined things. It was always the small things. The past few weeks I've gotten up, gotten kids ready. Caitlin may say, I not, don't do enough, but you, you know, we could argue about that. But I've seen the sunrise. Beautiful, beautiful sunrises, same days. I've seen the sunset, gorgeous sunsets in West Texas. We don't have a lot going for us. We're pretty flat. God gave us some, some majestic sunrises and sunsets to make up for it. Those are beautiful days. A lot of life happened in between. But I took a moment, a literal moment where you close your eyes and you're grateful and you start your day with gratitude.

(08:10):

Sunset's free. It's not rare happens every day, right? It's probably the least rare of things out there. But I intentionally stood there for a moment. I had other things to do, had other things going on, but intentionally stood there and watched it. Sometimes we have to intentionally sit down and pray. Caitlin and I have always sat down for dinner with our kids when there was one or there was four, I would say 300 knots a year. We sit down at the dinner table and eat together. And the times we don't, we're probably eating out or running around and we're in a car and we're doing the other things. But we make it very intentional to sit down as a family. No electronics, no TV on and fellowship break bread. And I think that's rare these days, but it's intentional. We've discussed it so much of life, the things that we struggle with are because we're reactive to it.

(09:18):

And so one thing that is in a lot of my writings, and it's what I coach on and it's what I talk to everyone about, is proactive versus reactive. When we're not prepared, when we're not intentional, when we're not planned out, when we haven't mapped out what we're gonna do for the day, the week, the month, the year, we become proactive. I mean, we become reactive. Reactive isn't good. It sounds negative compared to proactive pro sounds positive, reactive doesn't. But when we're reactive to things, we're on the defensive. We get put on our heels, we get pushed back. And so much of that can be avoided in life by intentionally living.

(10:09):

I'm not always good at it. I used to be the person that's like, we'll figure it out. We'll fly by the seat of our pants. We'll be reactive. It doesn't work. If you want to be successful, you can be intentional. And so one thing that I bought this year that I think I would share with anybody is Brendan Bouchard's high Performance Planner. I've used it before. I've gotten away from it because I, I've cre I've instilled habits that doesn't necessarily need it, but I know that I've gotten away from it. And with 2023 being my year of intention, intentional, I decided to go back to it for at least six months and I'll share it in the comments. I'll drop an Amazon affiliate link, which we may receive a small commission. That's the disclaimer we always have to put on there legally. But it's a good planner. It's a, but it, it really helps you try to live intentionally. So I don't know what your word for 2023 is. Maybe it's grace, maybe it's redemption, maybe it's, you know, who knows. But try to get your priorities in place. I believe there should be faith, family, finance, fitness in that order. If it doesn't fall in there, it goes by the wayside. Learn to say no to the things that don't fit your priorities. Be intentional with your time.

(11:25):

Schedule your TV watching. Schedule your time to veg out. Cause I'm not saying that you have to be as I would say, balls to the wall all the time because that's not a good either. You get burned out during that. But if you're intentional with your relaxation time, intentional with your date time. Oh, Richard, you're planning dates. Yeah. I mean, you have to, you can't just spon spontaneity doesn't happen. When you have a family in businesses, you have to plan those things. It's important. But be intentional in what you

(11:52):

Do. Do focus on faith, family, finance, fitness. Make 2023 your best year. But you're gonna do it by living intentionally. If you got something outta this podcast, share it with your friends and family like us on everything. That's the call to action that I always give at the end of this podcast. We hope that you continue to live it full. God bless. We love ya. You have a good week now.