The Courage to Live Intentionally
Written by James Taylor   
Wednesday, 09 July 2008

There are two ways to live. The first is to glide along and let things happen, only reacting. The second is to be an active participant in your own life—making choices and decisions, chasing dreams. To live your most fulfilled life, and enjoy it, you must live every day with intent and purpose. It takes courage to live intentionally, because it might mean making unpopular decisions, or decisions that are contrary to conventional wisdom. The point in living intentionally is to create the life you want, rather than just reacting to things that happen to you.

Acting versus Reacting

The biggest difference between acting intentionally and reacting is that when you act with intent, you have more control over the outcome. When you simply react, you can only work with what you are given. Acting is more creative than reacting (unless you are part of a comedy duo). Living proactively gives you more choices, because you identify and select choices, rather than settling for a choice given to you. If your perspective on life is that things are always happening to you, chances are great that you are a reactor. In order to change your life and live with intent, you need to change your beliefs.

The Cost of Lost Opportunity

While some may be perfectly happy to live their lives by reacting to events, they are probably only happy because they do not know what it is like to live any other way. Most people who live this way really do not project an aura of happiness, though. They seem mostly discontented with their lots in life—mainly because they feel they have no say in their own direction.

In economics, opportunity cost is used to analyze the true cost of choosing one thing over another. The opportunity cost is the cost of the next best, unselected alternative. People who actively live their lives will have to choose and there are “opportunity costs,” because you can’t possibly do everything at once. If you do not choose to live intently and with focus, you will have a (non-economic, non-scientific) cost of lost opportunities. You will lose many opportunities for lack of making choices and decisions. You will be taking what is given to you instead of seeking out opportunities. You will be stuck in the same habits, with the same friends, the same job and the same boring life!

How to Change Your Mind


Living with intent first involves changing your mind. In order to live intentionally, you must be able to plan your direction. Planning does not mean that you close yourself to unexpected opportunities and unforeseen situations, but it does help you steer your course, overall. In the morning, each day, spend five or ten minutes envisioning the way you would like your day to go. Then, throughout the day, as you make choices and decisions, make them with the intent to have a good day, make progress toward your goals, be happy and rest easily at night. Living each day like this will help you live your entire life with intent.

Dream Big

The best part about changing your mind and living intentionally is that you can dare to dream, and accomplish those dreams. Whether it is your dream to be a writer, or learn to play an instrument or grow a beautiful vegetable garden, if you live with intent, you can accomplish your dreams and goals. If your dreams are bigger—you want to start a nonprofit to help the hungry or visit every state in the United States or every country in the world, if you live intentionally and point every decision toward accomplishing your dream, you can achieve it. The bigger your dreams, the more courage you need. People will be skeptical, you will hit bumps along the road. With self confidence and purpose, you will successfully navigate all obstacles in your way and achieve success.

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