What Are Your Intentions

​Be intentional.

Please take responsibility for the energy that you bring into this space.

Welcome back everyone! The two quotes you just read are the inspiration for this week's blog. (No fancy intro today, it is what it is).

The everyday mundane can be just that... mundane, and, because most days are so ordinary, it's easy to get in a rut, and feel like life is moving in slow motion, as if your feet are in a hundred yard dash through quick sand. Not every day is going to have breakfast with a view, a hike to the top of Mount Everest, finished by a private plane flying you to dinner in Italy. In fact, I'm sure that none of us will have a day like that in our lifetime.

But we still get so hung up on the grass is always greener, which is why I recommend...

Be intentional.

Wake up everyday and find a purpose. Set a goal. Make the ordinary day, an ordinary day with a cherry on top. For example, most of my summer has consisted working with kids in some way shape or form. This past week at work,we took them to the pool. After much pressuring from some fourth graders, I decided that I was going to go off the high dive. Some background knowledge for the rest of this story, I am absolutely terrified of heights, so this was the last thing I wanted to do, but I thought to myself "Alyssa, as an almost twenty year old, you can't go off a high dive, that some of the kindergartners are showing you up on. If you can't do that, and overcome that fear, how is the rest of your life going to be any more interesting or adventurous."

So I climbed the ladder. Didn't look down. And ran straight off the edge. Intentionally.

I hit the water, came up for air,went and jumped off again.This time with less fear. Had I not gone off the board, it would have been a day. I probably wouldn't have had any complaints, and it probably didn't alter the course of time, but when I came home I had something to talk about. Something to make today memorable, because I was intentional with what I did.

For you this might mean a couple of things: tackling that art project you've been meaning to get to, taking time to listen to your favorite artist's new song, getting coffee with an old friend and catching up, smiling at everyone you see, sitting down and cracking open the bible, or it really could be planning a vacation to make the ordinary day extraordinary. I really don't care, just be purposeful.

Secondly, take responsibility for the energy you bring. By energy, I mean your attitude, your work ethic, your actions, words, everything that makes you, you. It's not your boss's fault if you come into work annoyed that you're there. That's the spin you've chosen to put on the day. You have every capable tool to be a light in any situation, and it's so easy to place blame on an external cause, when internally you can control yourself. We've been hardwired to think that placing blame on someone else for our bad day is the easy way out, when really I find it more difficult. If I'm having a bad day, it's only going to get worse when I make the choice for it to be a bad days If I don't acknowledge that choice,it's easy for me to just sit in my mood and not be capable of pulling myself out.

Instead, I try really hard to recognize the negativity before it becomes a consuming thing, and look for something else to focus on. It's so easy to think about how tired I am when I'm working an eight hour shift, but it's even harder when I let my focal point of the day be "when am I going to get out of here". The better days always occur when I'm able to step back, find some kids who are playing a game and jump in and enjoy my time with them.

Take responsibility for what you're feeling and then do something about it.

Days are long, but there's really not enough them to waste wondering what Mount Everest would look like. Be intentional with your days, and take responsibility for the energy in your life time, and see how extraordinary the ordinary can really be.