Towards the end of 2018, I met with an inspiring individual that I met shortly after we moved back to Indianapolis after living in Denver. We talked about many things, but something that stuck out to me was the idea of living intentionally.

Not that I thought I wasn’t living intentionally, but truthfully I hadn’t given the idea much thought.  This friend challenged me to journal for 30 days to see what thoughts, ideas and values came up.  At first, I found it a bit challenging and didn’t know what to write about.  It wasn’t long after starting the exercise that I found my rhythm and had more thoughts to pour onto paper than I knew what to do with.  The common and resounding theme of my writing, goals, values, and dreams was to be more intentional. 

Since then, the theme of intentionality has been popping up everywhere in my world – on book covers, magazine articles, instagram posts, in conversations with friends and family…literally everywhere.

My word for 2019 is:

Intentional

In honor of being more “intentional in 2019, I have set four overall intentions to help guide me to live the life I want to live.

While this is how I am choosing to be more intentional, there are SO many ways you can add a little more intentional living into your day:

• Planning meals for the week before creating a grocery list
• Limiting screen time during meals or when with loved ones
• Establishing a morning or bed time routine
• Planning get-togethers with friends or family
• Talking with friends or family on the phone rather than texting

Those are a few ideas to get your juices flowing, and here are my four intentions for 2019 and how I plan to work on each one.

Be Intentional

• Start most mornings with a 5 minute meditation.
• Continue working through Duolingo to learn French (I’ve been working on this inconsistently over the past year and have made quite a bit of progress, but want to make even more progress!)
• Put my phone away during meal times, especially when dining with others.
• Work on listening when conversing with other people, a skill I really have to be mindful at!
• Spending time with friends and loved ones.  It’s easy to say “let’s get together!” but with the way life is, if we don’t actually put a date on the calendar plans don’t actually happen.  This is another thing Brian and I have been working on over the past year or so, and we want to continue to improve in this area.
• Being more present and a little more go with the flow.  I’m a pretty structured and disciplined person, but this year (and every year) I am working on being in the moment.

Be Thankful

• Tell someone I love them every day.
• Tell those around me thank you and that I am thankful for them.
• Focus on the things I have rather than what I don’t have yet or what I want (I am thankful Brian and I can live with his parents while our home is being renovated!)
• Write another list of things that make me thankful at Thanksgiving time.

Be Rested

• Be in bed and resting my 9pm at the latest.  I am an early to bed, early to rise girl and always feel my best when I keep this habit.
• Limit phone time in the evenings and in bed.  I am setting up the new time settings on my phone to give me some limits here.
• Listen to my body and sleep in when necessary.  
• Remember that periods of rest are just as important as periods of hustle and grind. Neither can be done 100% of the time.

Be Inspired

• Cook from my favorite cookbooks and blogs.  This includes checking books out from the library, especially while we are living with my in-laws and many of my personal favorites are currently stored in a pod.
• Meet with people who are new and interesting to me in person.
• Enjoy trying new foods and flavor combinations while traveling and at restaurants.
• Read! Books, articles, magazines, anything I find interesting.  My personal goal is to attempt to read 10 pages a day of something.
• Practice my music – I studied vocal performance in my undergraduate degree and singing just makes me feel GOOD!
• Listen to podcasts that inspire me while walking the dogs, cleaning, driving, running, etc.

Your Turn!

• Do you set intentions, goals or a word for the new year?
• Share something you want to work on or accomplish!