Now that you have laid the foundations for your new more Intentional life, it is time to get to work. HA! We’ve only just begun! We have a mantra to remember: Know It!, Plan It!, Be It!. First, there are things you need to know, understand and integrate that will be the basis for your planning and being more Intentional. They are your PURPOSE, VALUES, and VISION. Here, in the two phases of PURPOSE, you discover why you are here and how you can make more purposeful decisions in your life every day. An Intentional life is guided by your VALUES. This is how you know what is right and wrong for you to say and do. Not judging others for what they say or do, because that is not what VALUES are for. VALUES are personal to you, for your life’s decisions. And, finally, for this section, nothing happens Intentionally without seeing it first – VISION. Without a clear VISION for the future, you are just shooting in the dark hoping you will get close to where you want to go. The shortest distance between two places is a straight line, and that straight line is your VISION. And remember, to make things even more fun, each of these principles and processes, need to be implemented in each of the 9-areas of your life.
Now that you know your basic life’s structural guidelines, PURPOSE, VALUES AND VISION, it’s time to start planning how you will implement your new understandings into your present lifestyle–easier for some than others. For some a major change. For others, slight continuous improvements on what you are already doing. Remember, an Intentional Life is not a life of winging it. If you want to really become more Intentional, you just can’t learn something new and try to implement it willy-nilly as you go. Our life is a complete system, remember? Do something in one area, it affects other areas. Plan It, is the only way to intentionally add your new life changes into your life’s system without messing up the whole system. First is PLANNING. Taking the time to plan and anticipate the effects of everything you plan to implement. STRUCTURE helps you determine what changes need to be made in areas such as your use of time, how you set your priorities, and how overall balanced your life is. RIGHT PEOPLE guides you through the process of deciding who is in your life hindering your progress and who is not in your life yet who could help you achieve your goals. And, to continue to demonstrate this is not as simple or easy as you may think, all this happens for each of the 9-areas of life simultaneously. But, only if you want to truly become more Intentional in your life.
Now to BE It!. Nothing happens unless you do something, right? Being more Intentional requires some LEADERSHIP, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE and the right amount of COURAGE and FORTITUDE. A leader isn’t followed, usually, unless s/he can demonstrate some integrity that they are following their own leadership principles in their own life. To BE more intentional, you must exercise more “Internal” LEADERSHIP in your own life, before you can think of influencing others by demonstrating “External” LEADERSHIP toward others. BE the leader you would want to follow and eventually, others will, too. That is going to require some EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EI). This is a pretty in-depth subject so let me give you a simple principle here to remember before we go much deeper into this later. EI is the ability to intentionally control your emotions during decision-making situations. In other words, stop reacting to life and you will be on your way to becoming more emotionally intelligent. The last principle to BE more intentional is your ability to control your fears. First, the fear that stops you from starting something you want to do and, second, the fear that stops you from completing it. COURAGE is the strength to take the first step in the face of fear, and FORTITUDE is the strength to take the second and last step to finish what you started.
Nine Key Principles for living a more Intentional Life that when implemented in all nine areas of your life will make you more intentional and give you the control over your life you need to accomplish more than you ever could imagine. Your Intentional Life awaits! Enjoy!
