How To Live a Life of Purpose with Intentional Living

Are you in love with your life? And if not, what are doing about it?

It wasn’t too long ago that I asked myself those questions. I knew that if I wasn’t careful, my life could turn into something I dreaded waking up to. And I didn’t want that to happen.

So I set out on a new journey: to live an intentional life that gave me fulfillment.

What does Intentional Living mean?

Intentional living is when a person sits down, evaluates their values + passions, and aligns their life to those principles. Basically, it’s taking all the things you love and incorporating them into your life.

Why is that so important?

Well, Richie Norton put it into words better than I’ll ever be able to:

“Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make us.”

. . . That really packs the punch, huh?

You have a decision to make: To create a life you love or to follow along with everyone else.

There are plenty of ideas of what the perfect life looks life, and culture will try to force one of them on us. But the truth is, no one knows what kind of life will make you happy except you.

If you plan to make intentional living your lifestyle, it requires a lot of thinking + conscious decision-making. This post is here to give you a few simple + easy tips to start living life intentionally.

Want to start living intentionally? These 3 tips will get you making impactful changes starting today! #intentionalliving #purpose #mindfulness Click To Tweet

Related: 125 Simple Pleasures in Life To Fill You with Joy

Related: 25 Ways to Simplify Life and Be Happy


3 Tips to live intentionally, starting now:

Image of girl standing by window with text overlay, How to live a life of purpose with intentional living

1. Watch for Time Wasters

It’s easy to let a day slip past. But what about when that day turns into a week? And then a month? And then a year?

Part of intentional living is intentionally spending + managing your time instead of going through your life without focusing on your priorities. If you don’t keep track of your time, you’ll find yourself wasting it.

Productivity and efficiency are a huge part of anyone’s life. Even if you’ve already mastered those, you might find the tips below will help you in a different way.

The time when you’re not working is just as important as when you are. I’d recommend taking these suggestions to heart when it comes to your downtime.

Ask yourself, could you be spending that time in a way that would benefit you better?

How to manage your time more intentionally…

Evaluate where you’re wasting time

and then set limits for those things (like scrolling on social media, watching Netflix, etc.)

Set your priorities and stick to them

They don’t even have to be “productive” things. If your priorities for the day are to practice self-care, go on a bike ride, and read a book, that’s fine. Just make sure to prioritize them.

Give yourself some structure

You don’t have to plan your day with time slots, but even just giving yourself a to-do list of what you want out of your day (or week, month, or year) will keep you focused + on track.

Get rid of those pesky distractions

If you really need to get some work done (whether it be cleaning your house or doing something creative), sometimes it’s best to drop things that will lead you to an endless amount of procrastination.

Consider shutting off your phone, making your kids go play outside for an hour, or doing what you need to do to help yourself focus.

Set a timer

If you need to do something that wasn’t originally on your to-do list, give yourself a certain amount of time to finish it.

Setting a timer is a great way to keep track of this. It’ll help you stay focused (and away from distractions) because of the time limit.

Managing your time is important, but it’s only effective if you do it properly. The best tip I can give you for being intentional with your time is this:

Only allow yourself to do things that mean something to you. Cutting the crap out of your life is the best way to be intentional.

2. Get What You Need

Have you ever pushed yourself toward a goal only to end up frustrated and burned out?

I have, and I recently discovered the reason why:

I’m not treating myself right.

The hustle mindset is a huge thing right now. Maybe it’ll stick around forever—only time will tell. And while I love the work ethic behind the idea, it’s no good to work yourself from sunup to sundown.

Humans were made with a need to rest. You can plug away 10+ hours a day doing whatever—your day job, caring for your family, pursuing your dream—but you won’t be able to last.

Don’t take it personally! It’s just not how people are supposed to live.

Once I realized this, the importance of self-care finally clicked. You can approach self-care in many different ways, but I recently discovered a method that helps me take care of myself without totally ruining the flow of my day.

“Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make us.

– Richie Norton

Listen to the cues your mind + body are giving you and then respond to them.

To give you an example, let me explain something that happened to me the other day.

I woke up early (like 5:30 AM) to get to work. I’m a blogger and freelance writer, and I had a pretty hefty to-do list. I edited and published a blog post, finished up the application process for two different writing jobs, and kept plugging away at miscellaneous tasks.

When the early afternoon came around, surprise surprise, I was struggling to continue with my work. I felt restless and unfocused.

I could’ve pushed myself through those last few hours, but I didn’t.

Instead, I gave myself a break.

This next part is super important: I stayed in action during my break, just in a different way.

I got up from my desk, made myself some lunch, and then went grocery shopping. Was I working? No. But I was moving around to ease my restlessness, and I was giving my mind a break by stepping away from my workspace.

When I got home, I was ready to get back to work. My mind was refreshed.

So if you’re constantly running around, say, taking your kids to soccer practice or violin lessons without giving yourself a break, you’re going to get burned out.

While there’s nothing wrong with taking care of your family, you need to take care of your mind + body.

3. Discover Your Passions

In a way, living intentionally revolves around this single idea.

It’s about creating a life uniquely designed for you so that your days will be more fulfilling. The two tips above are simple ways to be intentional with your life, but this third point is about changing your lifestyle.

Creating a life you love doesn’t come easily—it takes a lot of thinking and decision-making. But it’s so worth it because it means you’re spending your life in ways that you want to.

How do you create an intentional + fulfilling life?

woman outside embracing nature

To start, you need to define your core values. Once you know those, you know what’s truly important to you.

Then you shape your life around these values.

Let’s start with a few key questions:

  • What are you passionate about?
  • What fills you with purpose?
  • What makes you eager to get out of bed in the morning?

Your answers to these questions will guide you as you reshape your life to make it what you want.

Once you know your core values, think about how you can live a life centered around the values you just came up with.

Ask Yourself:

  • How can you focus your life around what’s fulfilling to you (this doesn’t have to be as a career)?
  • What big-picture changes do you need to make to bring intentionality into your life?
  • What in-the-moment decisions can you make to create a more fulfilling day?
  • What goals can you set for yourself (and stick to) to make these things happen?

You can’t just stop once you’ve discovered your “why” (your values, beliefs, passions, and purpose).

You have to keep going so that you can have the life you want. It’s not always easy, but the results are so impactful that you’re not gonna want to turn back.

Intentional living is different for everyone.

For you, it may look like living in the present. For someone else, it could look like getting their finances in order so they can travel the world.

That’s the thing—since living intentionally is based on your core values, it’s different for every person.

How do you incorporate intentional living into your day?

Let me know in the comments below!

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Yolanda xo


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About Yolanda

Website Owner / Content Creator

I’m passionate about helping you live life to the fullest so you can choose to find happiness and purpose. Learn how to CREATE THE LIFE YOU LOVE with intentional living and discovery of the simple things life has to offer. Learn more…


15 Comments

    1. Hi Stephanie! Downtime is SO important for us to be happy and thrive. Glad you are prioritizing looking after yourself xo

  1. I need to remember to treat myself. I’m on the go the whole day and sometimes there is no time for breaks! But I do know that self care is important. I like your idea of setting a timer – I think that will help with time management.

  2. I’m totally with you on the point about identifying where our time is going! Phone distractions are a big one for me; I use the Digital Wellbeing app on my Android that lets me put timers on apps. I use that to limit time on Facebook and Instagram. I also use the Forest App which shuts off all access to the phone for a set period of time.

  3. Although this is a topic that should be easy to do, sadly it’s not… and so many people are living less than their best because of UNintential living. Great nuggets here! Thanks so much for sharing!

  4. I love that quote to not let others decide for you!
    I also agree about the hustle mindset. It’s good to switch up tasks and give your mind a break.

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