02 Aug Why This Is the Perfect Time to Live With Intention
via Thrive Global by Jen Fisher
“Intention” is a word I use a lot. Living life with intention and being intentional about how we design our days are principles I live by. And I’m seeing this idea more and more. Along with “unprecedented” and “resilient,” intention is one of the Words of Our Current Moment.
Still, even though I have a sense in the back of my mind that I know what intention means, I recently realized I’d never really stopped to articulate it to myself. And as I thought more about it, I came to see the value of taking time to reflect on what intentionality means to each of us. In fact, that might be the first step in living with intention. So here are some of my thoughts on intention and what it means to me.
It’s important to distinguish between intentions and goals
Our goals are things we want to accomplish, but our intentions represent our core values and beliefs — the things we truly care about. Goals are often future-oriented — a milestone or marker pegged to a certain time down the road. Intentions are more about the present and the here and now, about how we show up in the moment. They’re about who we want to be, what we’re passionate about, what gives us joy. Though they play a huge role in our lives, intentions don’t have to be elaborately thought-out ideas about the universe — they can actually be quite simple.
That’s not to say that intentions and goals aren’t connected. Intentions are a way to help us achieve our goals. If goals are about the mind, intentions are about the heart. While our goals might be tied to external definitions of success, intentions are about who we are internally. They reflect who we want to be, not other people’s expectations of who we should be.
Intentions are more forgiving than goals
They’re about how we want to live our lives as opposed to whether we’re doing it right every single day. Intentions are an expression of our humanity. And as humans, we’re all perfectly imperfect, so unlike goals, our intentions allow us to give ourselves more grace and accept ourselves for who we are…
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