Part II: Building a More Intentional Life
Photo: Unsplash
Jenn
In Part One, we addressed how burnout doesn’t always look like overwork, but misalignment. Here, we go a little deeper.
One place to begin is through identifying your core values, interests, priorities, and vision as a way of being connected to yourself.
Where you are now
Before anything else, it helps to understand what your everyday life actually looks like.
Becoming aware of your habits, your actions, and your mindset gives you the clarity you need to move forward with intention. After all, it's hard to produce meaningful changes if you don’t know where you currently stand.
So take an honest look at the different areas of your life: your relationships, your finances and career, your faith, your body, your creative life, your sense of contribution, and the environment you live in.
How are you actually living them out?
Your values
Knowing your values is a key step in this process because your core values are the beliefs and principles that guide you over time. They influence your decisions and shape your actions, often in ways you do not even notice until you stop and look.
If you are unsure where to start, take a look at a sample list of core values and notice which ones resonate most with you. Feel free to also do your own search and identify your top five to seven.
Spend some time with it.
Think about your journey and the decisions you have made across the different areas of your life.
Which moments stand out?
When were you most alive or inspired?
Which situations left you energised, and which drained you?
Take it a step further by questioning your belief systems.
Are the rhythms you hold onto consistent with who you are becoming, or are they prescribed by society?
One of my values for instance, is collaboration, and Oak & Seasons exists because of it. By co-creating with others and learning from different perspectives, I've been able to build something that continues to evolve.
Another value is exploration. I love seeking out new experiences to stay curious and connected to ongoing development.
What are yours?
Your interests and passions
Your interests are the things you are naturally drawn to, the activities you find yourself returning to without force. Passions are the things you feel deeply connected to. The things you stay committed to even when difficulties arise.
Often, it is through exploring your interests that you begin to discover your passions. And in that process, you also learn parts of yourself you may not have known existed.
You gain clarity around the things that excite or fulfill you, which matters because it also allows you to live more fully.
So what are your interests? What do you find yourself drawn to, even when no one is watching?
Your priorities and vision
Knowing your values and what really draws you in is one layer. Where your time and energy actually go each day is a different story.
Priorities show up more in how your day unfolds and not in what you say.
What gets your attention? What often gets pushed to later or tomorrow? Who and what do you make room for? And who and what gets whatever is left?
This is often where the gap is.
Vision then, is what sits on the other side of that noticing. Not necessarily a five-year plan or a list of milestones, but a sense of where things are headed if your days kept unfolding as they currently do, and whether that is a direction you would truly choose, or one you have fallen into.
By taking inventory of where you are right now — your values, your interests, your priorities, the direction you are heading, you begin to take meaningful steps toward living with more intention.
And even at that, none of this settles everything once and for all. The pace of life changes, seasons change, and what was ideal a few months ago can suddenly no longer be ideal. Returning to these questions ever so often as a way of staying honest with yourself is part of staying connected to what truly matters.