January certainly seems to be flying by. That does seem to be the way things go. Minutes, hours, days, and months seem to go by rather quickly, and if we are not careful can be left wondering where the time went.
My Word
I like to come up with a new word every year. For me, it serves as a reminder of what I want to accomplish that year. Some years the word has been release or strength depending on things that were going on at the time. This year the word I have chosen is “intentional.”
Meaning
Intentional means done on purpose or deliberate. It can be seen as a negative word if we refer to harm being done intentionally to someone. However, for me, this word is positive. I have chosen “intentional” because I want my actions to be defined by purpose this year. I want to be deliberate in moving toward my goals and what I want to accomplish.
Life seems to just happen sometimes and carry us along. If we are not intentional in our actions, it is easy to just go with the flow and come off base. When we have things that we want to do and accomplish, having a plan and being intentional about following that plan is vital.
Schedule and Plan
You may be curious how to incorporate being intentional into daily life. One thing that is helpful is developing a plan. Scheduling and planning can help us keep track of the priorities that need to happen in a day. If we do not set out those priorities, it can be easy to get distracted by less important tasks. Having your top 3 priorities laid out in the morning can help you be deliberate in accomplishing those before moving on to the other tasks.
Goals
Another helpful idea when considering being intentional is to know your goals or what you want to accomplish. If we do not have clear goals or a direction, it is more difficult to be deliberate in our actions of achieving what we want to accomplish. Having an idea of the outcome you want to achieve will help you develop a plan that is defined by purpose.
Relationships
An area that I am also striving to be intentional in is relationships. This can be hard because of the stressors in everyday life. Life does get busy, things take up our time, and before we know it, months have gone by since we saw or spent time with family members or friends. Relationships are important, but there are seasons in life as well. Some seasons there does seem to be more time for others, but there are also seasons where we must be careful not to spread ourselves too thin with daily responsibilities. One thing that can help with the time factor is utilizing text and messaging. We can still be intentional in relationships by letting someone know we care about them without the time of planning an outing. It also gives the other person the opportunity to respond in their own time if it is a busy, stressful season for them.
Conclusion
Being intentional in our actions helps give us a sense of accomplishment and peace. When we have direction and move with purpose toward that, we are less likely to be distracted by things around us. This is not to say that bumps will not come up in our path and throw us off course. However, it will be easier to get back on the path if we have a direction and are purpose driven in moving toward what we want to accomplish.
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[…] the beginning of the year, I wrote a post about my word of the year. That word is “intentional.” My goal this year is to be intentional […]