Creating a daily routine for intentional living helps us get the most out of life. By setting SMART goals and preparing your mind, you create a plan for success. You can do this; we’ll show you how. You can achieve amazing results.
When you hear the word habits, you think of negative behaviors or addictions. But habitual thinking and behavior patterns aren’t always bad. Good habits are just good addictions. We can learn to use the habitual tendency of the mind to create purposeful daily habits for intentional living strategies.
Building Intentional Lifestyle Routines
To build anything, you need a solid foundation. The same is true of the mind. If you have negative self-talk and harmful values, it becomes difficult to develop positive behaviors. Older, more entrenched thinking patterns will override the new scripts. This is why many people are not successful in using affirmations. Most people have accumulated various levels of negative self-talk or negative values. (1)
Building intentional lifestyle routines requires some inner work. You need to find and replace harmful programming with positive scripts. You must also have enough self-awareness to tell the difference between harmful and safe thought scripts.
Your intentional living strategies should include tools to increase self-awareness. Tools like creating a memory palace and critical thinking skills increase the bandwidth of awareness.
Everyone accumulates some negative self-talk scripts along the way. But, if we learn to identify, reject, and reprogram, then they don’t become habitual. Self-talk, like “I can’t do it,” becomes limiting. The longer we hold onto it, the more power it has to limit what we can do. If we learn to identify it and stop it, that helps. Then, we can reprogram with affirmations such as “I can do this!”
Spotting this kind of unhealthy thinking takes self-awareness. You can use tools tol help you probe your mind to expose this programming. The Enneagram will show you the harmful thought scripts for your personality type when you go into an unhealthy thinking range. The Cultural Assessment Questionnaire can give you a numerical score on the level of toxicity of your beliefs.
An easy way to identify harmful beliefs and values is to gauge how a thought or value makes you feel. Any thought or value that conjures a negative emotion like fear, hate, or anger is likely harmful. Any thought that makes you think negatively about yourself, or others is harmful. Listing your core values is an excellent way to identify these harmful triggers. We recommend the Repetitive Question Technique for this exercise.
If you belong to one of the branches of Western organized religion, Christianity, Islam, or Judaism, you have limiting beliefs. Your worldview is based on arbitrary sectarian ideology. Most of your beliefs center around the idea that your beliefs about your imaginary friend are correct and everyone else is wrong. This is only the starting point of the slippery slope.
Does this mean that if you have sectarian beliefs, you can’t create a daily routine for intentional living? No. You can create a routine, but it may not produce the results because you harbor negative bias and prejudice. It’s like trying to place positive affirmations over hate. At best, they cancel each other out. Your sectarian prejudice will rule because you are likely exposing yourself to the programming that caused it in the first place.
Purposeful Daily Habits for Intentional Living
1. Prepare the Foundation
You prepare the foundation by finding and removing harmful thoughts and values. We discussed this at length above in building intentional lifestyle routines.
2. Set SMART Goals
Step two is setting SMART goals, which is also a key technique for achieving personal growth. By making your goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, you can create a roadmap for success. Breaking larger goals into smaller, more manageable tasks can help keep you motivated and on track.
3. Setting Intentions for Personal Growth
You won’t achieve any goal if you don’t develop and grow. Setting goals is the basis for any successful strategy. You must also have a plan and the resources to reach your goal.
Once you have a plan, it is important to set your intention and marshal the willpower to overcome obstacles. This is where you align your thoughts, actions, and energy with your desired outcomes. When you set intentions, you are declaring your goals to yourself and the universe.
Many growth and development plans fail because they lack intention. When people encounter an obstacle, they falter because they lack the persistence and intention to find a way around it. This is why setting intentions for personal growth and development is so important. The best strategy needs the intangible element of a steadfast intention.
Vision boards and creative visualization techniques help to keep you motivated. Vision boards keep your goals in focus. By surrounding yourself with images and words that represent your goals, you can stay motivated and focused on achieving them.
Another technique is to practice mindfulness and meditation. By quieting the mind and tuning into your inner self, you can gain clarity on what you truly want and need for personal growth. Setting aside time each day to reflect on your intentions can help you stay on track and make progress toward your goals.
Creating a healthy, skeptical mindset is important for setting intentions for personal growth. Stay positive: Surround yourself with positivity and stay focused on the end goal. Positive thinking can help you stay motivated and overcome any obstacles that come your way.
4. Daily Routine for Intentional Living Strategies
You have your goals, and you are motivated to reach them; now, you need a daily action plan to achieve them. It’s the things you plan to do daily that make the difference. Some people like to organize their day sequentially—first, I do this, then that.
Other people like to schedule their routine to start and stop at specific times. Finding what works for you is the key. Here are two examples of a daily routine for intentional living with purposeful daily habits.
Example 1: Building intentional lifestyle routines on task and time
1. The alarm is set for 6:25 a.m. every day to keep on the sleep schedule.
2. Brush your teeth, then meditate for 20 minutes.
3. Take specific morning vitamins while coffee is brewing. Make bulletproof coffee.
4. Shower and prepare for the first meetings of the day.
5. Work on computer tasks and email until 8:00.
6. Lunch with the team is from 12 to 1 p.m.
7. Office work and meetings are scheduled for 4 p.m. Meditate from 4:30 to 5 p.m.
8. Exercise from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and shower.
9. 7:30 to 8:30 dinner, take dinner vitamins
10. Study and stretch or do Yoga in the evening.
11. 10 p.m. night alarm for bed
Example 2: intentional living strategies that you add to the schedule.
1. Start your day with gratitude. Begin each morning by taking a few moments to reflect on what you are grateful for. This simple practice can help shift your mindset to one of positivity and abundance.
2. Set intentions for the day. Take a few minutes to write down specific goals or intentions for the day ahead in your journal. This can help you stay focused and motivated as you navigate through your daily tasks.
3. Practice mindfulness. Whether it’s seated or moving mindfulness meditation, these methods help you stay grounded and centered.
4. Stay active. Incorporate regular physical activity into your daily routine. Whether it’s going for a walk, practicing Yoga, or hitting the gym, staying active can boost your mood and energy levels.
5. Connect with others. Make time each day to connect with loved ones, whether it’s through a phone call, text message, or in-person conversation. Building and maintaining strong relationships can help foster a sense of purpose and connection.
6. Practice self-care. Prioritize self-care by engaging in activities that nourish your mind, body, and soul. Whether it’s taking a bath, reading a book, or indulging in a hobby, self-care is essential for maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
Purposeful daily habits should include activities that nurture the mind, body, and soul. Your daily routine for intentional living needs to be something you look forward to. Living with intention is a journey, not a destination. You need to enjoy the journey. Take small steps each day to align your actions with your goals and watch as your life transforms into one of purpose and meaning.
5. Track Progress, Stay Accountable, and Be Flexible
You’ve created a wonderful plan with SMART goals, and you are motivated to succeed. Keep a journal to record your progress. A journal can help you spot incremental growth and help clarify obstacles.
When you share your goals with a friend or mentor, you create an accountability partner. Ask them to hold you accountable. Having someone to check in with can help you stay on track and motivated. Others can see issues from a different point of view and help you overcome obstacles.
Don’t forget to celebrate the small successes along the way to keep yourself motivated and on track toward your ultimate goal.
Stay flexible. Be open to adjusting your goals and plans as needed. Sometimes, things don’t go as planned, and that’s okay. Stay flexible and adjust as needed to keep moving forward.
Conclusion
It’s essential to identify, challenge, and reprogram harmful beliefs and values. Removing negative thought patterns provides space to add positive thought scripts. By questioning sectarian beliefs, we can make positive changes in our lives.
By cultivating self-awareness and self-compassion, you can make a positive impact on your circle of influence. You have the power to help break the negative influence of religious sectarian beliefs in our culture.
Incorporating intentional living strategies into your daily routine is a personal experiment. It takes some trial and error to find what works best. It’s important to be flexible and open to making adjustments as you learn what works best for you.
References
(1) Intention—Behavior Relations: A Conceptual and Empirical Review. The European Review of Social Psychology