Being Intentional

I was talking with my wife, who is a mental health counselor, the other day and she was lamenting a bit about some of her clients not wanting to make the necessary changes in their lives to get over their issues.

She was mulling over why people don’t or won’t get better and then she came out with this statement, “Some people just don’t want to do things intentional in their lives.” And that started a long discussion about getting out of the ruts we are in and living successful lives.

For many, their lives have become noting more than a usual boring routine, going through the next act, or what we would call day, on the stage of life. It is very easy to stay in the rut. It has been carved out for you and the path is leading you towards a life of mediocrity every day. Go ahead, grab your coffee, head off to the job that you hate, argue with the boss, come home, pet the dog, eat dinner, watch American Idol, go to bed, get up the next morning and do it all over again.

The lyrics to a Pink Floyd song are appropriate here. See if you know this one…

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find that ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

Ponder that for a moment…

Have you asked yourself that question lately? Where have the last ten years gone?

Of course most everyone building a home based business wants to be successful and dreams about getting out of the rat race and achieving whatever level of success they deem appropriate to themselves.

But are you doing anything intentional about it?

Are you, every day, purposely doing something different to change the circumstances that have gotten you to this point in your life? Being intentional means making the decision to stop talking about the dreams you have and to start taking action to achieve them.

You don’t have to start with the action that will make you the million dollars you want. You can start with something very minor. I started by taking a different route to work everyday just to break up the monotony. I was intentionally doing something different every day.

The next ten years are going to go by whether you decide to better your life or not. They will go by whether you take a risk or not. Don’t wait to do that thing you’ve always wanted to do and then realize ten years down the road you wished you had started ten years earlier.

Being intentional about your decisions and actions will separate you from the millions that just go through the motions of life every day wishing their lives were different but unwilling to do anything about it.

Don’t let time trick you into becoming comfortably numb. Start being intentional today.