71: Living Everyday with Intention – Mindset Realign

• Instagram
• YouTube
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• WordPress
• Pinterest

In order to live our lives with intention, we must first know what our intentions are. We must ask ourselves questions to understand what is really important to us, and seek a life that makes these a priority.

A life without without intention is like drifting in the sea without a destination. You might be moving great distances, you might be paddling for hours on end, exhausting yourself, but if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there.

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there.

Setting the intent for your life, and each day, is like charting a course. Everyday the time will pass and you’ll keep putting in the effort, whether it gets you anywhere or not. Everyday is an opportunity to move closer to your destination, your goals, your mission.

Every day is an opportunity to fulfill your purpose.

Intentional Living Everyday

Transcribed with Descript.

Welcome to day one of the Mindset Realign Challenge. 

What is mindset? Let’s talk about that first, because it’s mindset realigned. What exactly is our mindset? So according to VeryWellMind.com, I love their definition. It’s just the best. So I reference it many times, but:

“Mindset is a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself. It influences how you think, feel, and behave in any given situation. It means that what you believe about yourself impacts your success or failure.”

This is why mindset is so important. What changed my life was changing my mindset, all right? My mindset used to be garbage. I considered myself an optimist because I was so hopeful about the future, but honestly, I was a pessimist because I thought my current situation was just the worst it could be.

I was never seeing the positive in my current present life. I was only seeing negatives, and I was hopeful towards positive things, but I wasn’t truly. Believing that I was capable or worthy of them. There was so much mindset, like, so much mindset work that had to happen for me. And that’s what changed my life and that’s why I’m still here today.

I fixed my mindset and chose to stick around. So what does life without intention look like? We’re talking about intention today on day one of our mindset realigning challenge. I believe that we have to set intentions in order to live a fulfilled life, this is very similar to having goals and, you know, just to be future focused a little bit.

And so I’m gonna tell you a little bit about intention here. Oh, okay. So a life without intention.  to me it’s like drifting in a sea without a destination. So if you imagine that you’re like shipwrecked and you’re just on a raft, and you’re out in the ocean and you’re trying to get to land and you’re gonna put in work every single day, paddling, you’re not gonna get anywhere if you’re not focusing on a destination, right?

So you might be moving great distances because you’re getting tossed around by them. And because you’re putting in time and energy paddling every day. Cause what else are you gonna do? You’re burning the energy, you’re taking the time. You’re you, you’re putting all that out, all right? And if you’re paddling there for hours on end and exhausting yourself, but you don’t know where you’re going, you’re never gonna get where you’re meant to be.

You’re never gonna get where you intend to be. In order to live a life of purpose, we have to go places on purpose.

Okay. So that’s how I see it, is that every day we’re still putting in time, we’re putting in energy. But where are you going? That’s the question. Okay. So let me tell you a little bit about myself. Uh, I’m gonna introduce myself cause I know I have a few. Totally new faces in this group, and I’m really excited for that.

So hi, welcome. I am Brittni Clarkson. I’m the host of The Meant to Bloom podcast, and I’m creator of the Everyday Joy Planners. I am so passionate about helping people, especially women, even more so moms, to strip away all of it. All of the stressors, all of the sweating over the small things, so over sweating the small things, I’m so overall stressed and I’m so passionate about infusing your life with joy and actually enjoying all those small, beautiful moments in your everyday life.

Because life is full of abundant blessings. All we have to do is be willing to see it. And so I am here too. Every strategy I have, every tip I learn, all the information and knowledge that I gain along this process. I’m here to share that with you because it’s what lights my fire. So for far too long, I lived my life just getting by day-to-day, I was focused on all those small things, stressing over all those small things.

And when I finally zoomed out and saw a greater purpose for me. That’s when my life truly began. And I know this is possible for every one of you, and I realize that I’m here to help others as all of us are. Um, but seeing the specific way that I’m meant to be showing up and sharing my experiences and my knowledge, that shifted the way that I show up in my everyday life.

I take care of myself now because I know how important my voice is in starting these conversations and keeping them going, adding fuel to the fire, I recently heard this is a little bit of a seg segway, so, uh, tangent if you will, I was recently listening to the Kathy Heller podcast.  and she was talking about a study that was done at I think Harvard, over a 75 year period.

And they did a bunch of smaller studies to corroborate the information that they found as well and the one key signifier in happiness. Um, cuz they asked people like, what would make you happy? And then they gave them that. So for some people they just gave ’em money. Because they said more money would make me happier.

Some said better sleep. So they gave them. Everything they needed for a good night’s sleep, some said eating better. So they’re like, good, we’re gonna cook for you for the next week. And at the end of that week, none of them were any happier. But in the longer study, and you know, they had those people come back another week and did another study.

What was proven to be found was that helping others created happiness, like on a scientific level. Not just like people reporting to be happier, but actually like psychologically. All the ways they had of monitoring and rating that and measuring that, on a psychological level, people are happier when they’re helping.

So that very much defends what I said a minute ago, that, you know, my purpose is here to help others to share what I know. And I believe yours is too, the total book’s totally different for all of us though, and that’s just so beautiful. I love it, but let’s talk about intention. Okay. Do you have intentions in your life?

Do you know what your life goals are? Why are you here every day? Why are you doing the things you’re doing? Let’s talk. So setting the intention for your life and each and every day. To me it’s like charting a course. Okay? So every day the time is passing and you’re putting in the effort. Just like if you’re stranded on sea, and you’re putting in the time and the energy, whether it gets you anywhere or.

So every day is an opportunity to move closer to your destination, your goals, your mission. Every day is an opportunity to fulfill your purpose. All right? And in order to live our lives with intention, we must first know what our intentions are, right? Step one is awareness. So we have to ask ourselves questions to understand what is really important to us, and seek a life that makes those a.

The funeral exercise. Have you done this before? Okay. You’re gonna picture this. You’re at a funeral, all right? You’re walking into the church or the venue?  and your room is filled with people that you know, everybody from your life, everyone you know and love is there. And you walk up through that center aisle up to the casket, okay?

Because we’re having an open casket funeral here, and it’s you, you are laying in this casket. You’re at your own funeral. All right? So visualize that, and you go and you take a seat in the front row and you watch every single person that you. . Everyone in your family, all your closest friends, they’re all gonna come up and talk about you and tell stories about you and say exactly what they remember about you.

Now, what are you hoping that they say? And if they were to say what you want them to say, would it be true? At this point, back when I did this exercise, I knew what I wanted to be and I knew that I was not that person. I wanted to be someone who was light and loving.  Those were like the key words for my life.

Otherwise, I felt so heavy and dark and full of sadness and resentment and some hatred. A lot of hatred actually, but that’s not what I wanted to be, and I didn’t know how to change it until I saw what I wanted. When it became clear I wanted to be known. Someone who shares her light and someone who is absolutely loving towards others.

And it was that moment that really started me pursuing this personal development and growth that has led me to where I am today. Okay. And we’re gonna talk more tomorrow about gratitude, because that was the key shift in shifting me into a person of light and love. But it started with the intention of knowing, well, that’s where I wanna go.

I didn’t wanna be someone who was, you know, just plagued by depression. Like, it’s different. There’s, there’s kind of a difference, you know, in having depressive thoughts coming in and, you know, fighting against depression and actually being consumed by depression. You know, I just, I had this dark cloud over me and a lot of people could see it.

Most people, even my own mother, tell me these days that she doesn’t recognize who I am. And that is just the biggest compliment to me that I have changed so much, and I have the people closest to me be able to recognize that she’s very warming to my heart and it just fuels my fire even more to be here sharing it because I just get so lit up imagining.

Any other person having the same experience of going from a place like I was to the place that they could be watching people bloom into who they’re meant to be. It’s,

I can’t even describe the way it makes me feel and I never imagined I’d feel this way about other people’s success. So personal growth, um, that’s my testimony there. . But I want you to question from your funeral exercise here, what is the legacy that you wanna leave? What do you wanna be remembered for?

What is your core purpose? Right? And when it comes to your purpose, walking in your purpose, knowing your purpose, you don’t have to have this clear concrete, like full on blueprint for your entire life in order to walk in your purpose. Um, do you just kinda have to know the intention behind it and know like, well, I’m here to help.

You don’t have to know how. You don’t have to know who. You just have to know. I’m here to help. I’m here to love other people. And so how can you show up every day in support of that? Okay. And I’m gonna guess that most of us are here to help others and to be as loving as we possibly can. Cuz I think that’s just our.

Human drive is, you know, we’re called to love others, we’re called to be love, um, and loving others is helping others, however you’re gonna put it, whatever terminology, whatever phrase really resonates with you, that’s what I want you to go ahead and cling onto and to know and to believe. But I think we’re all gonna be some kind of derivative of this.

You know, we’re all here to be the protagonist. I don’t think any of us are gonna say, well, my, my intention is to rule the world. . You know, I think we’re all kind of the same. We all have good intentions. Yes. So let’s get concrete in the intentions. Let’s move towards those intentions, right?

So here’s the key question: how do we live every day with our intention in mind? Because you can’t just wake up every day and be like, well, today I’m gonna go out and feed the homeless. Because you know, you have kids at home, you have to feed them too. So how can you live every day in tune with your purpose?

Yes. So each day you’re gonna have to take the time to decide what that day is for. All right? So if your end goal is to be love, then that means that some days you will go out and love people. You will go out and do active love and kindness. And it means that some days you’re just gonna have to show up and be as loving as possible in your everyday tasks, right?

And in order to show up and be as loving as possible, you have to take care of yourself, right? Because can you show up and be loving when you are exhausted and malnourished and dehydrated?  and just absolutely cranky because you’ve got this negative worldview going on because you haven’t stopped and practiced gratitude, and you are just like on the verge of burnout. How loving can you show up and be? 

Some days you have to take care of yourself in order to be that version of you that you’re intending to be.

This means that some days you will go out and you will do something loving, and some days you will have to retreat and rest and care for yourself so that when you’re serving others, you’re really doing it from a place of love, not a place of obligation, which leads you into resentment. And I know for us mamas.

It’s very important to keep your intentions right when you are caring for your kids and your husband and yourself and you know everything else in the world. We have a lot of weight that we tend to carry, and we have to remember that that weight is not a burden. It is a blessing. And taking care of yourself is how you’re gonna keep your mind right and show up in the right intention.

Let me help you make the mundane easier, so you have more time and energy for what you really love! Start by grabbing the Mindset Makeover here: