My Take On Intentionality

The single focus that is most central to my growth, improvement, and personal process is to be as intentional as possible. It’s my North Star, my guiding principle, and the thing that I’m complimented about the most. 

It also happens to be my biggest insecurity - that I don’t actually have good intentions and I’m just an incredibly selfish person - and as a result I’ve overcompensated to place a high importance on operating with intention in everything I do.

All that aside, I’d like to run through what I’ve come to understand to be true about intentionality and why it’s so effective.

First, there is nothing that will change your life more effectively than being intentional. There are pursuits that will change your life more, but none more effectively. And that’s because being intentional helps you create the realities and futures you want most. When our efforts are oriented in the direction of what we value most, and what's most important to us, our actions follow suit and our reality shifts accordingly.

Changing your life like that requires two different things: ‘Awareness’ to know exactly what you want amid all the tradeoffs and options available to you… And ‘Discipline’ to follow through on what you’ve chosen despite the resistance and circumstances around you. 

Simply put, being more intentional is an ongoing process where you continue to elevate your awareness (or consciousness) and increase your self-discipline. 

But here’s the thing that a lot of people misunderstand: Being intentional isn’t about being perfect, or waiting to make the perfect choice. It’s faithfully moving forward as best as you can with the level of awareness you have. It’s not meant to be overthought, overcomplicated, or a cause for delay… It’s an imperfect convicted step.

This all connects closely to my favorite quote of all time by Maya Angelou - “Do your best until you know better, then when you know better, do better.”

Which brings me to the final point. Intentionality is optimization. We’re constantly acquiring more awareness, filling in gaps of knowledge or learning about new options. Intentionality requires both a willingness to change your mind when new information is presented, a flexibility to accommodate life as it happens… And discernment to stay committed to a certain path even when something else comes up that’s attractive or distracting. 

Ultimately intentionality is about choice: Awareness informs the choice, discipline fulfills it. And the more you can be aware of the choices you’re making, or guiding the choices that are being made unconsciously, the more you’ll steer your life in the direction of what you most authentically want.

It’s making good on our good intentions for who we want to be, how we want to show up, and the impact we can make in the world. Is there anything more important than that?

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