What does ‘living with intention' actually mean?
Living with intention means making deliberate choices about how you use your time, energy, and money. It’s about identifying your values and what matters most, then aligning your actions to reflect those priorities—instead of simply reacting to life on autopilot. Yet, being intentional isn’t always easy, especially in areas like relationships or personal growth, where the outcomes aren’t as straightforward as they often are in school or work.
As kids, our lives are framed through the lens of school: work hard and get good grades, or don’t work hard and you won’t. Once school ends, work follows a similar pattern—work hard, and you’ll land a good job and earn a good income. Or don’t work hard, and you won’t—nepotism aside, of course. However, everything outside of these structures feels abstract. And this presents the biggest challenge: how can you be intentional about something you can’t define?
As we navigated a gauntlet of personal challenges—including the aftermath of the death of my wife, COVID lockdowns, and blending 2.5 families—the things that mattered most became clear for us to see. Reflecting back on this period, and with the benefit of hindsight, we discovered four key areas for living with intent:
Health and Wellness: the things you do to protect the well-being of your body and mind
Relationships: the people who you surround yourself with (friends and community) or who you're stuck with (family)
Work and Career: the thing(s) you do with your days to stay busy, and/or earn a living (work) and the longer term impact you hope to have on the world (career)
Planning and Organization: important activities to keep your life 'on the rails' (so to speak)
These four areas provide context for what requires our attention in order to live a more authentic and fulfilling life. Rather than leaving things undefined, we can bring intention to each area and more clearly identify where we are—and aren’t—on the right track.
We need to be clear: we fall short of our goal to live with intention every day, whether at home, at work, or with each other. But instead of getting discouraged and defaulting to 'autopilot,' we embrace each day as an opportunity to start fresh.
Living with intention doesn’t mean 'nailing it' or achieving goals in every area of your life every day. What it does mean is being thoughtful and clear about which areas of life need your attention and doing your best to live the badass, authentic life you deserve.