Living with Intention

For the past three weeks, I’ve been participating in Mike Dooley’s 21 Day Visualization Project. The daily meditation assignments take a little over 6 minutes. I usually listen to them twice because they feel so good. That 15 minutes is usually my very favorite part of the day!

Today is Day 20.  My assignment was to visualize a conversation with my older, wiser self 20 years in the future. It was such a beautiful exercise to see my life through the lens of this older version of me. I felt her sense of pride, inner strength and grace. 

She was deeply grateful for this exact time I am now living because it contributed so much to her wisdom, strength and financial well-being.  Her life in 2040 is so much less tumultuous than mine is today, and she fondly, nostalgically reminisces about the excitement, fun and challenge of starting a brand new business at the age of 51. 

My 71 year old self had some beautiful messages that I want to share with anyone who needs them:

• Relax. All is well. You are exactly where you are supposed to be, doing exactly what you are supposed to do. 
• Well-being is your natural state. Anything you perceive as other than well-being is just an error in your perception. 
• All energy is good energy. You can transmute negative to positive in the blink of an eye. 
• You are worthy of the success you are achieving.
• In each moment, find the joy in your daily activities, no matter how mundane the task may seem. This is the secret to living with intention. 

Today, I am focusing on that last piece of advice. There is value in each moment, each task in a day. No moment is more valuable than another.  In a society that rewards work, we lose appreciation for the way each task in our day supports the picture of a beautiful, complete life. 

I’m starting a new business, which I will be ready to reveal very soon! There are a lot of exciting things happening as this new business evolves and takes shape. Taking a shower or brushing teeth may not seem as important as making the phone call that yields the next big client in my new business. But imagine where I would be a week from now if I stopped taking showers or brushing my teeth!

I used to feel guilty for time spent doing activities other than those related to business. Driving soccer shuttles, making meals, doing dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, household chores, helping kids with school work, attending performances and sporting event, shuttling kids to music lessons or performances… all were viewed as inferior to writing pre-season orders, entering orders in the inventory management system, receiving product in the store, steaming, pricing, merchandising, accounting, generating reports, maintaining online inventory, writing blog posts, routing phone systems, helping customers, etc. In short, I felt like I was always being pulled in ten directions. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the work. Most of the time, I actually had fun doing it! But no matter what I was doing, there was something else that felt more important, more urgent. And no matter how much I did, it was never enough. 

Now my life is very, very different. I normally get up at 6:00am to do my daily meditation and begin my work. One morning last week, I slept in an extra hour because I drove the girls to a sleep over late at night. Instead of feeling guilty for sleeping the extra hour, I celebrated the fact that I was able to provide a safe ride for the girls. I celebrated the fact that I had the option to choose to sleep an extra hour. 

Instead of feeling pressure to make a bunch of phone calls for my new business, I spend time connecting with my higher self to determine which phone calls will yield the desired results. I’ve replaced quantity of work time with quality. My efforts are focused and specific. Most days, I easily complete my tasks in 3-4 hours. Most importantly, those 3-4 hours are seriously fun! The remaining 12 hours of my day are spent doing exactly what I want to do. Whether it’s cleaning the house, going for a mountain bike ride, reading with my son, going to the beach, walking the dog, taking a nap, making a meal, spending time with friends… or doing more work… I spend each day living my life with intention. I am grateful for the opportunity to savor each precious activity in my day. 

If you decide to enjoy each moment of your life, don’t be surprised when people judge you or criticize you for not working hard enough. There are people who buy into the concept that success is tied to suffering. “No pain no gain”. Work doesn’t count unless it’s painful. Success isn’t of value if it doesn’t come at a price. For the people who believe those statements, they are true.  The following statements are equally true if you allow them to be:

• I am enthusiastically embracing God / the Universe’s wealth as it rains downs in an avalanche of abundance flowing through me. 
• My every need, my every wish, my every want, my every desire is instantaneously met by Infinite Intelligence.
• I am Source energy and Source is everything. 
• I feel God / the Universe’s wealth and abundance in the love and friendships that support me and surround me
• I feel God / the Universe’s wealth and abundance in the inspiration, creativity, and intuition I receive from this partnership with my higher self. Each day, I take action on that intuition to move in the direction of my dreams.
• I feel God / the Universe’s wealth and abundance in the physical strength in my body, my health and my beauty. I am so grateful for these and so many other gifts. 
• I am royal-flush-lucky to be right here, right now in this body, in this place. 
• And now I feel God / the Universe conspiring on my behalf to achieve anything that I desire.

Our daily activity and our attitudes towards that activity forms the basis of our life’s reality. If we believe we work really hard and get nowhere, it will be true. If we believe our work is blessed and inspired by a collaboration with our higher self, it will be true. Starting today, live your day with intention. In 20 years, your future self will be so proud you did.