3 Ways to Live Intentionally in 2020

This year will not go down as one of my best years. It’s been a year marked with loss, grief, anger, and acceptance. However, the struggles also forced me to reevaluate my life. While intentional living is not new to me the struggles of this last year brought me to a deeper understanding of it. Intentional living by definition is one’s attempt to live according to their values and beliefs. Values may stay the same or may change in our lives. Most of my life I’ve lived intentionally, but something happened. In all of the troubles we experienced there was a shifting of my values. I began to realize that some of my values are different than what I thought. Longing for more depth, I began to change how I lived. When I think about the changes made three key things stand out. Here are 3 ways to live intentionally in 2020:

3 Ways to Live Intentionally

Taking time to reflect

Taking real a good, hard look at life is an ongoing process, but some seasons invite reflection more than others. Hard times, big changes, or year-end reflections are moments that welcome sincere reflection. This last summer we lost a dear cousin way too soon. I started thinking about my relationships more and the things I haven’t told people and the importance of telling them before they are gone. This last week it was clear my beloved and favorite grandmother was getting ready to leave this earth. She was a huge influence in my life, so Christmas day I went to tell her how important she was to me and how much I loved her. Spending time to genuinely reflect on life everyday will help you identify your important values, so you can act on them before it’s too late.

Making hurt count for good

There is no better way to live intentionally than using a bad experience for good. Taking a tragedy and turning it into something positive is so healing, strengthening, and uplifting. For example, a year ago a close relationship was deeply fractured, leaving us both deeply hurt. While we are working our way to a better place in our relationship, the whole incident forced a lot more reflection in my life (see above). It finally sunk in that there is no time for holding on to grudges, drama, or less-than-real relationships. While there was no way to speed the healing process in what happened I could do something to help the grief. As a result, I channeled my grief into something good and made things right with a long-term strained relationship in my life. The bad times often offer us lessons we can use in other areas- make them count.

Let go of the unimportant stuff

Letting go of the unimportant stuff isn’t always easy. Sometimes we don’t even truly realize what’s important and what’s not. This area will look different for everyone, but when it hits you that you need to let go then let it go. Living intentionally is about reinforcing your important values. At some point all of us come to moments where we have to decide between what’s important to us and what’s not. What I’ve often found is that what’s important often changes when I am in that moment. Unimportant stuff weighs you down and takes away from what you value, so let go.

Blessings to you on this last day of 2019. Make each day of 2020 count!