Being intentional is about bringing a focus and attention to something that is important to you. If you want to be intentional every day you need to get clear up front about what you want to achieve and then take action on achieving it.
This simple guide will show you 6 ways to start being intentional with your behaviour, your thoughts and your actions.
Being intentional is a capability that grows every day and will get noticed by the people that matter most to you.
If you want to move your life forward and make progress every day, then your intention and attention will be two key guiding qualities.
What does it mean to start being intentional?
Being intentional means having the ability to see specific results in the future that, if you achieve them, will make things bigger and better for yourself, your business and your life.
Being intentional means getting clear up front about what you want to achieve.
Your vision, your purpose and your goals.
This clarity about what you want is reinforced when there are specific measurements and deadlines behind the intention.
You intentionally set an intention to achieve a specific outcome or result in the future.
This could be a specific goal you want to achieve or something you want to have in your life.
You then move forward with intention every day towards achieving that result or outcome you stated you want.
How can I be intentional?
You become intentional by getting clarity on what you want and understanding what is most important to you.
When you learn to be attentional you focus on your strengths and don’t let fear hold you back.
You become action orientated and create an unshakeable determination and mind-set to accomplish what you’ve set out to achieve.
By having clarity about what’s important, you become intentional about where you want to invest your time, focus and energy.
This clarity ensures your attention is focused on the areas of your business and life that matter most.
You appreciate more and show gratitude to the things that matter most in your life and say no and create better boundaries around the areas of your life that aren’t as important.
The importance of being intentional every day
Here are six simple ways to start being intentional every day:
1. Get clear on the result you want
Unless you have clarity about the importance of the result you want to achieve you won’t have the intention to take action.
Get clear up front about the outcome you want and understand the importance of achieving the result you want.
When you have this level of emotional investment to a result, and know the ideal outcome you want, you will increase your emotional and intellectual engagement and your intentionality will soar.
2. Be deliberate with your day
If you are clear up front where you want to spend your time, energy and focus each day you are far more likely to achieve the result you want.
You will know exactly what to do and where to put your attention, which increases productivity.
This gives you direction and intention every day.
When you don’t have that clarity up front, you can waste time on non-important activities and get easily distracted.
Identify the three important activities that will help you get the outcome you want and work on those without distraction.
This intentional commitment to what you want communicates to your brain and other people what’s most important to you, and where you focus lies.
3. Be purposeful with your time
When you are clear about the context of the outcome you want, your why, you then start thinking about the action steps needed, the what.
If you are clear on the purpose and importance of the result you want, and the action steps you need to undertake to achieve the outcome, you then think about how to do it.
We all want to achieve a result in the easiest and simplest way possible.
When you have that mind-set you become more intentional about your time.
There will only be specific activities, relationships, teamwork and collaboration that help you achieve the result you want.
Focus on maximising those and saying no to everything else.
This creates better boundaries, helps you become more present and makes you more intentional about where to invest your time.
4. Be considered with your focus
Having high intentionality means aiming for a very specific result.
The specific result you want show be a number or an event, with a clear deadline so you know when you’ve achieved it.
This narrow focus takes the guesswork out of where you should invest your time and focus.
There will only be a few areas that you should be focusing on to get that result.
Identify those areas and eliminate other activities.
Being intentional with your focus ensures that certain activities that you may be doing in the past are stopped, outsourced or delegated.
Having this focus on your vision, your end goal and the action steps needed gives you the confidence to focus your attention on what matters most to you.
5. Be intentional with your goals
One of the best ways to achieve a result that’s important to you is to be intentional up front.
The perfect framework for being intentional about what you want is to set powerful, measurable goals.
Goal setting gives you a plan and path to work towards every day and helps you start your day with intention.
For goal setting to really work, you need to be emotionally and intellectually engaged in the result you want.
This investment amplifies your intentionality.
You know why you want to achieve the goals, what specifically you want to achieve and when you want to achieve it by.
This clarity and helps you set up each day with a clear knowledge of exactly what you want to do and where you want to invest your time and energy.
6. Be intentional with your most important relationships
Intentionality multiplies the power of each relationship that is important to us.
Whether they are work relationships, client relationships or personal relationships, what we appreciate grows if we give out attention to it.
Intentionality helps us understand the purpose and importance of every relationship we have.
When we take a moment to understand why a relationship is important it grows.
If we take a moment to express gratitude to someone their importance in our life grows.
Identifying what we want from a relationship ensures we are clear up front about the vest result we want from that relationship.
Being present in communication and in person with the people that matter most shows how much we value them.
Summing Up
Our intentionality grows when we focus on being more intentional. To start being intentional get clear up front on what you want, understand it’s importance and take focused action every day towards achieving that goal.
Over to you.
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About the Author
Mark Pettit is a small business coach to business owners who want to simplify their time, energy and focus so they can multiply their freedom, impact and results. Visit the website to find out more.
This article originally appeared at Lucemi Consulting
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