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October 4 - October 7, 2021
If the journey is the destination, then we must learn how to become better travelers. To become better travelers, we must first learn to orient ourselves. Where are you now? Do you want to be here? If not, why do you want to move on?
Knowing where you are begins with knowing who you are.
Mindfulness is the process of waking up to see what’s right in front of us. It helps you become more aware of where you are, who you are, and what you want.
Our motivations are heavily informed by the media. Our social feeds are populated by endless images of wealth, travel, power, relaxation, beauty, pleasure, and Hollywood love. This virtual runoff perpetually seeps into our consciousness, polluting our sense of reality and self-worth every time we go online. We compare our lives to these largely artificial constructs and structure our plans accordingly, hoping to eventually afford a golden ticket to these misleading fantasies. Conveniently tucked out of sight are the months of planning, the “talent” lined up in audition studios toting their
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Choices come in all flavors: the good, the bad, the big, the small, the happy, and the hard choices to name but a few. We can make these choices carelessly, or we can make them with intention.
Intentionality is the power of the mind to direct itself toward that which it finds meaningful and take action toward that end.
If intentionality means acting according to your beliefs, then the opposite would be operating on autopilot. In other words, do you know why you’re doing what you’re doing?
This is what it means to live an intentional life. It’s not about living a perfect life, an easy life, or getting things right all the time. It’s not even about being happy, though joy often greets you along this path. Leading an intentional life is about keeping your actions aligned with your beliefs. It’s about penning a story that you believe in and that you can be proud of.
For most of us, “being busy” is code for being functionally overwhelmed.
“No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue—you’re not consciously aware of being tired—but you’re low on mental energy.”
We need to reduce the number of decisions we burden ourselves with so we can focus on what matters.
When we put pen to paper, we’re not just turning on the lights; we’re also turning up the heat.
Often all it takes to live intentionally is to pause before you proceed.
There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all.
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean we’re being productive.
Many painters are afraid of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the painter who dares and who has broken the spell of “you can’t” once and for all.
Like a block of marble, our lives are finite. They start out rough and formless. Each choice we make places a chisel to the stone. Each action irreversibly chips away time. No action is so insignificant that it can’t benefit from our attention. It’s the lack of attention that’s often responsible for the rubble of cringeworthy decisions weighing on our conscience.
Reflection is the nursery of intentionality. It grants us the protected mental environment we need to reclaim some much-needed perspective and begin to ask why. Through Reflection, we cultivate the habit of checking in with ourselves to examine our progress, our responsibilities, our circumstances, and our state of mind. It helps us see if we’re solving the right problems, answering the right questions. It’s by questioning our experience that we begin to sort the wheat from the chaff—the why from the what.
Reflection helps identify what nourishes you so you can make better decisions as you seed the next season of your life.
Technology is always moving us toward a more seamless existence. The less friction, the better. That’s great when you’re ordering pizza. You don’t really need to understand all the miraculous tech that allows that hot cheesy goodness to appear out of thin air at your doorstep. Convenience, however, often comes at the expense of understanding. The less time you spend examining things, the less you know about them. When it comes to understanding how you spend your life, it’s important to slow down and take the time.
Eyes see only light, ears hear only sound, but a listening heart perceives meaning.
Our curiosity is the exciting electricity we feel in the presence of potential. It sparks our imagination and wonder, drawing us out of ourselves and into the world. It’s a magnetism that often supersedes reason, greed, personal gain, and even happiness.
We can do no great things; only small things with great love.
“Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them.”
“There are naïve questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.”
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
It’s within our power to be intentional about how we respond to the wildly creative problems the world, people, and even our emotions subject us to. No matter what happens in your life, no matter how bad things get, you’re never entirely at the mercy of your experience. There is always opportunity and freedom to be found in how we choose to act. It’s our obligation, then, to make the most of this freedom.
“If a problem can be solved, there is no use worrying about it. If it can’t be solved, worrying will do no good.”
As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.
What stands in the way becomes the way.
I shall either find a way or make one.
The big misconception is that the alternative to perfection is failure. Mercifully, life isn’t binary; it exists on a spectrum. On one side, we have the unattainable: perfection. On the opposite side, we find the unavoidable: chaos. All of the beauty that exists in the world hangs in the balance.
Every action is a step up from where you were. It doesn’t matter how small the steps are, or if you stumble along the way. What matters is that you continue to step up.
If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!
