We are now more than a month into 2025.  Crazy how time flies… I was very low-key for January, wanting to just take some time for myself, to recharge the batteries, to give myself space to decide where I wanted to put my energy for the year.  I had decided in December that this was what I wanted to do.  So, I jumped into the new year with a single mindset in place – to live more intentionally. 

Living intentionally might seem like a buzzword kind of idea, and you may well be correct.  And it doesn’t bother me if I’m just jumping on the current well-being / spirituality / New Age trend that is making the rounds in the past couple of years.  Why?  Because it’s in line with my core values and my desire to be the best version of myself.

If you ask a few people what living intentionally means to them, you’re likely to get a couple of different answers as it’s a subjective measure.  For the purposes of this blog post, I’ll just say that I’m interpreting living intentionally as being present as much as possible in the moment and aligning my choices and actions with my core values and the things that truly matter to me in life – activities that I truly love or that put stars in my eyes.  Maybe that means prioritizing taking my daily lunch hour walk with Isabelle because being physically active and quality time with my wife are important to me.  Maybe that means carving time out into my regular routine to incorporate more meditation because creating space is a value I want to emphasize more in the next year.  Maybe that means getting together more regularly with my brother and his wife because spending time with people who mean a lot to me needs to be a priority going forward. 

Some of the things that I want to do this year will be more challenging (like being comfortable saying ‘No’ more regularly!).  Others are things that I already have been incorporating into my life, such as meditation and reading.  One area I know I need (not want) to be intentional is with my writing, be it this blog or more on the creative writing side. 

Therefore, I’m committing to writing at least a handful of more (shorter) blog posts in the coming weeks.  I’ll be taking a page from my wife’s playbook and rather than my usual overly long, rambling posts that just go on and on and on (and on…), I’ll look to write a few short, pointed blog posts.  The next couple will deal with Intentional Living.  Any surprises there? 

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Your turn!

What is your understanding of intentional living?  Have you ever tried practising it?  What would be the top one or two things you would want to focus on in your own life to be more intentional?  Add your comments below to get the conversation going. I’d love to hear from you.