It’s Monday again… How did that happen? It’s a cool, dreary and rainy day here where I am in NC. Makes it a little harder to find that motivation to get you week off to a successful start. Sometimes you just have to dig deep and remember your purpose, passion and mission.
Chapter 2 in iBloom’s “iChoose2 Love my Life” book is about choosing to live intentionally. “Intentionally” as defined by Meriam Webster means: “with full awareness of what one is doing”. It’s synonyms include: consciously deliberately, purposefully, willfully and with premeditation.
“Living intentionally is taking your priorities (those things you value most) and creating a plan… to get from point A to Z”. -iBloom
Before you can begin your journey to the live you dream about and that fulfills God’s purpose, you have to create a vision of your life and know what direction you want to go in. Think about what you do when you plan a family vacation or trip with friends. You research the hotels, the various restaurants and activities. You print out a map or cue up your GPS to find the best route and to help you along the journey.
“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” - James Dean
Do you spend as much time planning your days, weeks and months? Do you pray and live your days with your long term goals in mind? Do you realize how each turn you take will affect your journey? Do you know how to adjust your sails when the wind starts whipping you around so that you stay on course?
It all comes down to living intentionally. When you know what you are living for, what your values and purpose is, then you can start creating a vision of the life you truly are meant to live.
One way to figure this out is to create a dream board or vision board. I talked about this last year in this post. It is a great method to help you see what is truly important to you (your values) and to create a visual, tangible, real presentation of your goals, dreams and vision. It takes much more than wishing, hoping and dreaming to actually create a life you love.
“Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.” ~Washington Irving
Chapter 2′s challenges ask us to define our values and what is most important to us. Then we are asked to take an honest look at whether how we are living our lives reflect those values or not.
The 5 things I value most are: my family, serving God, helping others, creating a legacy, being financially independent/debt free, living a healthy lifestyle (yes that is 6 things, I didn’t feel I could cut any one out though).
Does the way I live my life, spend my time, actions I take, choices I make reflect those values? If this were a test in school I would give myself an “A” for effort but a “C” for execution. This has definitely shown me that I need to make better choices especially when it comes to making my relationship with God my top priority and also my choices related to my health.
What about you? What do you value most? Are you living your life intentionally? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below or if you blogged about this, please add your link below!
View other posts in this series: http://ceoofmeinc.com/tag/ichoose2-love-my-life/
Want to join in the journey through iBloom's iChoose2 Love my Life? Click below to purchase it!
Ah Misty, this was a convicting chapter for me. In listing my five priorities, I became painfully aware of the fact that my top priorities were not where most of my time was being spent. But, God’s Grace is bigger than that – and I can choose to take this realization and make the needed changes. Thanks for hosting this link up!
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Colleen, I am right there with you… It is hard to not be a hypocrite isn’t it? We say what we value, what we love and what we want for our lives but then our actions say the opposite. I struggle with it too. Like you said God’s grace is big enough to cover our failures, day in and day and I am glad for the revelations from this book too! Wishing you blessings and strength to make those positive changes too!
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