Tag Archives: intention

When you find yourself at a fork in the road

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When you find yourself at a fork in the road, do you decide or slide?

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Caleb Jones

Today’s quote prompts us to reflect on our decision-making processes.

In life, we often encounter moments in which choices must be made. Deciding involves taking control, weighing options, and moving forward with intention.

Sliding, on the other hand, can lead to missed opportunities and regret by mindlessly staying the course we happen to be on.

Embracing decision-making empowers us to shape our futures and grow from our experiences.

By choosing to decide, we assert our agency and move closer to our goals, fostering personal growth and fulfillment.

Our choices define our journey.

EXERCISE:

Where are you at a critical juncture in your life?

Where can intentional decision making versus passively drifting through life’s choices make all the difference?

“Allocate time well ahead of time.”

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“Allocate time well ahead of time.”

—Arthur C. Brooks, Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School

Image from Unsplash by Luke Chesser

“Time management” is a misnomer. Time flies while having fun, and moves along on its own even when we’re not having such a good time.

I prefer the term allocate, as in today’s quote. It conveys levels of intentionality and prioritization in the way many people try to wisely save and spend their money.

Time is life’s ultimate currency.

We only get so much and when it’s gone it’s gone. Investing this precious resource reminds me of the phrase, Plan your work and Work your plan.

Even when we are not working it seems wise to allocate significant periods of our days to the priorities of family, community, health, and leisure to keep things operating optimally.

EXERCISE:

In what areas of your life would allocating your time more wisely make the biggest difference? What blocks of time works best for you to apply this planning practice?

Where do you experience the flow of life without interference

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Where do you experience the flow of life without interference? Go there when you wish to feel the sensation of effortless effort.

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Mathew Schwart

How often do you feel you are swimming upstream, against the current? Where in your personal and professional life do you experience the greatest resistance to your best intentions and efforts?

What strategies and approaches are helpful when you feel you are about to go under?

With these examples in mind, shift your mental and emotional compasses 180 degrees to some of the effortless flow states you’ve experienced in the past.

EXERCISE:

Envision yourself as an eagle or another majestic bird soaring on the warm updrafts of air from their surroundings.  How can you revisit this and other sensations of effortless effort when the world gets you down?

Summon your best intentions like arrows from your heart

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Summon your best intentions like arrows from your heart and let them fly into your days.

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Amazon

Living with intention is described as a way of living consciously and deliberately according to one’s passions, purpose, goals, and values.

It can include simplifying your environment, engaging in mental and physical practices, and choosing where to invest your time and energy.

Today’s reflection points to our hearts as the source of their power. It is still up to us to aim them, pull back our life bows, and let them fly.

EXERCISE:

It has been over 20 years since Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book The Power of Intention was published. Consider reading or re-reading this classic and learn some of the enduring lessons of co-creating your world your way.

 

When we investigate and anticipate the exciting and enjoyable aspects of the future, we enhance our happiness

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When we investigate and anticipate the exciting and enjoyable aspects of the future, we enhance our happiness

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Rachael Gorjestani

How do you usually feel on Friday compared to Monday? If you have engaging plans for the weekend or have a career you enjoy, your answer is usually very positive for both scenarios.

What happens to many working folks on Sunday evenings if their jobs don’t exactly light them up?

The situations above are examples of positive and negative “Creative Tension,”  where the nature of the future has a significant effect on our moods and overall satisfaction with life.

EXERCISE:

In what ways can you be more intentional with your life to use the power of “creative tension” to envision and realize more of your hopes and dreams?

“You should have something to show for each day you were lucky enough to live.”

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“You should have something to show for each day you were lucky enough to live.”

—Ryan Holiday, American marketer, podcaster, Stoic philosopher

Image from Unsplash by Guille Álvarez

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that the new year is off to a great start!

Beyond the gifts you received—and perhaps a few extra pounds—what else do you have to show for these days?

How lucky and grateful do you feel each day you roll, step, or leap out of bed?

In the year ahead, how will you bring greater intention and purpose to your days to contribute even more within your various communities?

EXERCISE:

Consider setting up a show-and tell time with family and friends.

How can your individual and collective efforts help everyone to feel even luckier to be alive?

I try to be available for life to happen to me

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“I try to be available for life to happen to me.”

—Bill Murray, American actor and comedian

Image from Unsplash by Alexander Grey

What does it mean to be available to life?

What qualities would you possess if life entered and soaked you, body and soul?

Consider all the experiences we have with our five senses. How fully do we use them?

What if we had super senses like certain animals or plants, and how they magically take in water, minerals, and mix it with sunshine to make food.

How alive might we feel?

EXERCISE:

Where are you even more active as you happen to life?

Where do your intentionality and efforts infuse the world with your special gifts?

What are you bringing to the party?

Beauty is a free spirit and will not be trapped within the grid of intentionality.

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“Beauty is a free spirit and will not be trapped within the grid of intentionality.”

—John O’Donohue, late Irish poet, author, priest, and philosopher

Image from Unsplash by Kelly Sikkema

Have you ever tried to be intentionally creative?

Putting your head down and trying to focus on new possibilities is like trying to create breakthrough ideas in a group brainstorming session — it rarely works!

Alternatively, when we relax and have access to a lighter touch and a freer spirit, beautiful things often emerge.

EXERCISE:

Where has the power of intention held you back and limited your creative efforts?

Where might an unfocused or less rigorous approach act as a catalyst for new and wonderful things to occur?

 

Ring the bells of your days and sit in their reverberations

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Ring the bells of your days and sit in their reverberations.
—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Manga Vitriolic

The days go by in a blur for most of us. Whether we’re rushing around like chickens without their heads or the world around us is speeding by, it’s all a bit dizzying.

Living with greater mindfulness and intention slows things down so that we actually notice our surroundings and reflect on what is going on, moment-to-moment.

With our best focused efforts, we take in and appreciate the bells we ring and the whistles we blow to signal the marks we make in our communities.

EXERCISE:

Take some extra time throughout your day — or just at day’s end —to feel the reverberations of your efforts and the impact you’ve had on the world around you.

Consider giving yourself a quiet celebratory high five to acknowledge the good you’ve done before you head to bed.

Life is like skiing. The goal is not to get to the bottom of the hill

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“Life is like skiing. The goal is not to get to the bottom of the hill. It’s to have a bunch of good runs before the sun sets.”

—Seth Godin, American author and former dot com business executive

Image from Unsplash by Banff Sunshine Village

Do you or have you participated in winter activities such as skiing or sledding? Although I tried my hand at skiing in my late teens and made it down a few bunny slopes, sledding was my thing as a kid.

When our wintry prayers were answered for snow days, I was out the door with my friends to visit venues we named Suicide Hill and Dead Man’s Drop.

As fast as we would race down each run, we would immediately dart right back up each incline again and again, holding on tight to our flexible flyers, snowboards, and toboggans.

We couldn’t get enough and only frozen toes, growling stomachs, and looming darkness would have us head home.

EXERCISE:

How many good runs have you had in your life?  What intentions and actions are you planning and taking to make the most of every day you wake up to see the sun?