Living Intentionally

After my post last week, someone asked me what I meant by living intentionally. Hmmm...it's a good question and one I had to stop to think about. I'm still not sure I can answer clearly, but here's an attempt. Living intentionally is to live with intention. I know...duh! But it really is that simple. My favorite dictionary definition of "intention" explains it best: "an aim that guides action".

That is exactly what I was missing in the midst of my overworked scramble to hang on to my heart. My daily activities were driven by circumstances -- whatever happened to be happening at any given time, and the tyranny of the urgent -- whatever current happening appeared to carry with it the most urgent need or deadline. The end result was a flurry of activity that certainly didn't fulfill the passions God has placed in my heart. And to be honest, although each might have seemed urgent in the moment, many of the activities were fairly purposeless in the grander scheme of life too.

In order to begin living intentionally again, I first needed to identify that one specific aim that I wanted to have guiding my actions. I'm talking a big, overarching aim that covered my life in general. For me, it came down to looking a year ahead and realizing what one thing I most wanted to have different about my life by then. Once identified, that aim or "intention" has become the measuring stick by which I choose my daily activities. Whatever moves me closer to that intention passes the test. Whatever doesn't support that intention gets ditched -- or at least gets put in proper perspective.

Has living intentionally instantly fixed my life? No, of course not. But every time I notice my stress levels rising and that sense of purposelessness kicking in once again, I go back to my intention and reevaluate my activities. In a way, it really does become my compass in a world that is too often chaotic with endless competing demands on my time.