A Guide to Living Your Life More Intentionally

The majority of us spend our lives rushing through things that we need to do in our day to day lives. We tend to jump from one distraction to another and keep on with our busyness. Some of the tasks that we do have a great purpose while others are only a distraction to avoid feeling the empty void that we all feel to a certain extent. With work deadlines, personal goals, and the numerous amounts of content you get exposed to, life can become quite chaotic. But what if we could learn and practice ways to flow through this chaos with less friction?

Now imagine how life would be like if we were aware of why we do each task, I bet we would be doing it with more deliberation and involvement. Let’s explore some of the ways we can get started on the journey of living life more intentionally.

• Change your current mindset – We always tend to feel that our lives are too busy or we have something else to do that keeps us from fully doing anything with absolute involvement. Most of us are stuck in this pattern of thinking and struggle to follow our dreams and ambitions just because we think we don’t have enough time. This is just a story your mind tells you based on the information it has received over time. Remind yourself this is not true and time is something you make for the things that’s truly important for you. Remember, if nothing changes, nothing changes.

• Start small – Like everything else, you are not going to master this way of being and living magically. It’s hard work put into practice every day in small doses that can lead you closer to living a life filled with purpose and intention. So, start with allocating around 20 minutes each day to do the most important task for you. Block all your distractions and focus this 20 minute absolutely for this one task. For me it could be my meditation, writing, working on my hotel concept (Yes, I am from the Maldives and have been lucky enough to get the funds to open a small 3-bedroom vacation home). For you, it could be a meeting, exercising, cooking, etc. It doesn’t have to be a spiritual practice, it just needs to be something that will get you closer to your life purpose and goals.

• Learn to Say No – This is something we all struggle with way too often. We allocate time to do something and suddenly something else comes up. I’m not saying we should never postpone the above task, depending on the nature of what else comes up, occasionally it is alright to postpone. But make sure you are postponing it for a legit reason (going out for drinks or coffee and playing video games doesn’t qualify). You can do all of these things after you do your most important task every day.

• Expand more blocks of allocated time – Once you are consistent with your first intention practice for a few months, integrate an additional block of the same amount or even a little more time, it’s really up to you. Again, just make sure this task or activity is important to you. As you keep integrating more and more dedicated time blocks to living more intentionally, you will see that naturally, it’s easier to do other smaller things in your day to day life with more intention as well.

• Create more empty spaces in your day – Just like all these tasks, the quiet time you spend just by yourself is so important. This is the time you spend on familiarizing yourself with your thought patterns. This space of time can itself become an intentional block of time to work on your inner intelligence and help you make better choices in life.

• • Review and reflect – Chances are we will all fall a little short on everything we intended to do at the beginning of the day. Remind yourself that it is okay. As long as you have done the majority of what you intended to do, you have had a great day. And some days you won’t even make half the list, and that’s okay too. Just do better the next day and be consistent in your efforts.

Always remember, no habit or change you want to bring in your life happens overnight. Start small and integrate bit by bit in your everyday life. Most importantly, do not let the setbacks hold you down. When you’ve fallen short, simply accept it and do better the next day. It’s all those little steps that lead to a blissful life overtime.