It honestly doesn't matter where you are in life, if you want a new start, obtaining it requires a little courage and some mental acrobats. You must first be open to change and second, able to shift your thinking. It takes courage to be open to change, as it requires you to veer your thinking away from the things that may be presently sustaining you. Our strongest instinct is survival. That instinct is challenged, when we are actually surviving, yet we feel the need to alter how we are doing it in order to be true to our life's purpose. We desire things in our lives that, at times seem to be a millennial away from where we presently exist. Maybe we feel stagnant in our careers, where we live, our relationships, or just in general. The things we desire, feel so far removed from us that we can only muster the presence of mind to keep them in our thoughts, as if remembering to dream about them, will cause them to someday, happen. Yet, dreaming is inevitable because it is how we remember what we were created to do. Life is a gift that is full of amazement and wonder, as long as we chose to see it this way. But, most often we become adults and cruise-control through whatever trajectory our lives happen to have gone in at some point, managing to make the best of things. And sometimes we have managed to make life look to be optimal!
Intentional living is an abandonment from the gear of cruise-control that we have all at some point or another, found ourselves shifted into. You may have asked yourself- "When did I forget to live life to its fullest?" Well, if you really think about it, you will realize that it happened when you became involved with some event in your life that monopolized your energy, hijacked your time or otherwise required everything within you to accomplish it. It doesn't have to have been a negative event. It literally may have been something wonderful, such as completing a degree or getting acclimated to a new job. There is only a certain amount of conscious bandwidth we humans can use at once. After which, we tend to get into a mode of living our lives on pure muscle memory.
Intentionality is a temperature gage for our soul. The only way to become intentional is by asking ourselves the pertinent questions and asking them often. Do I know what I was created to do? What gifts and talents do I have and what am I doing with them? Is what I'm doing aligned with the one thing that, given a choice, I would do with the majority of my time? If your answer to any of these questions is not affirmative, it is time to find a sober way to again become aware of how you will accomplish the very important life work only you can accomplish!
If making the transition to live more intentionally and pursue your life's most meaningful mission seems like an arduous task, adjust your lens to view it through the wide-eyed, open lens you viewed life through as a child. Your mission is a gift to you and the world that gives you great satisfaction and feelings of meaningfulness. It is not a task that tires you to no end. Take some time to think about how important your purpose in life is and who needs you to be on your post! Creatively think of ways you can begin expressing the fruit of your giftings. Be willing to pivot and change enough to bring it forth.
You can integrate things that involve you using your passion and gifts in small ways, such as volunteering, donating your time to a cause, going to school, taking a course or creating a side hustle. Fuss back at the lying voice that tells you, you are too old or too young to begin or resume what brings you great joy! You are going to be doing one thing or the other. You may as well be enjoying most of it! I will leave you with a popular quote from Tony Robbins, "Where focus goes, energy flows". You will automatically find yourself in the places, amongst the people, doing the things, that will authentically land you closer and closer to your most intentional living when you turn your attention to your dreams and just start!
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