4. Living Life with Intention

Stop Reacting and Start Choosing

Be fully present and deliberate in every choice you make. Align your actions with your values to create purpose and direction. Each moment becomes an opportunity to move closer to your desires and goals, with clarity guiding your path.

When life is full, it’s easy to get caught up in constant activity. Checking boxes, responding to demands, and chasing the next item on the list feels like accomplishment. All that hustle makes the days pass quickly, and even when you get it all done, something still feels off. We are being productive, but despite completing those checklists, are we truly moving forward?

That’s where intentional living comes in.

When we live with intention, we make deliberate choices about how we spend our time, where we place our energy, and what we allow to shape our lives. We focus our energy on the things that impact our future selves, the person we want to be tomorrow, and the person we want to be in the years ahead.

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Define Your Values

You can’t live with intention if you don’t know what you stand for. Your values are the foundation that guides your decisions. Are you motivated by faith, growth, service, creativity, connection, parenting? Take a few minutes to define what matters to you most. Once your values are clear, decision-making becomes a reflection of your direction, rather than your distractions. You start saying yes to things that support your direction and no to what pulls you off course.

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Set Your Direction

Identify what you’re working toward. What are your long term goals? Who is the future version of you that you’re creating? Without direction, it’s easy to drift or feel stuck and unfulfilled. Setting specific, meaningful goals helps anchor your efforts. They don’t have to be grand or complicated, just clear enough to keep you aligned with your purpose. When life throws you off course, and it will, having that framework makes it easier to pivot and move forward again.

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Your Actions Reflect Your Priorities

This is where intentionality shows up in real life. Does your daily routine reflect what you say matters most? It’s easy to let urgent tasks crowd out meaningful priorities. Intentional living invites us to be more deliberate by aligning our calendar, our energy, and our focus with our priorities, not just our to-do list.

Practicing delegation, saying no, turning off notifications, working efficiently, and blocking out time for essential pursuits are just a few ways to accomplish this. These powerful shifts protect your time so you spend more of it in balance with your priorities.

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Make Room for Joy

We don’t have to practice rigidness every minute of the day to live intentionally. Intentional living gives spontaneity and fun more meaning. Because you’re choosing with focus, instead of chasing everything, you’re free to enjoy the carefree moments without guilt or distraction. That new freedom leaves more space for laughter, celebration and peace.

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Live Proactively, Not Reactively

Intentional living puts you in the driver’s seat. Instead of being pulled in every direction, you are guarding your time with purpose. Life won’t always go according to plan, but when your choices are rooted in clear values and direction, even hard decisions become more manageable. It allows you the opportunity to respond rather than react, and to do it with clarity.

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Living with intention doesn’t require a perfect plan or a flawless track record. It asks for values, awareness and choices. Pay attention to how you're spending your time and why. Notice what energizes you and what drains you. Be honest about what no longer fits. Let these observations shape the way you move through each day. You may not be able to control every demand, but you can control your response. Small, consistent choices lead to lasting change.

Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.
Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.
Proverbs 4:25–26 (NIV)

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?
Luke 14:28 (NIV)

The next step is to set your goals and intentions for the week! Let’s move forward together on this! Think about your future self and who you want that person to be. Create intentions this week that lead you in that direction.

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