Setting Intentions
Living with intention is like going to the gym. You can’t work out once and declare victory for the year. But the more you train, the more you strengthen and develop these muscles. Whether you’re setting intentions for the future, re-examining your relationship with yourself, focusing on your people, or aiming to show up differently, the following self-improvement exercises will help bring clarity and purpose to your life.
The Exercises
Start with The Most Common Question for a two-part series centered around choosing your life direction, then sign up below with your email address and I’ll send you additional exercises over the next few weeks.
The Most Common Question & Overcoming Your Greatest Obstacle: An exercise to bring clarity and passion to the burning question on all of our minds.
Coach Yourself: Daily journal entries and questions to reflect on your past, present, and future.
With Whom Will I Share My Life? Who gives you energy? Who are your mentors? How can you spend more time with—and become more like—them?
The Power of Saying No: How to stop doing the things that distract, so you can focus on—and achieve—your top priorities.
Self Talk: Naming your gremlins, empowering limiting beliefs, and making sense of stress.
How Will You Show Up? Listen better, identify your peak, and write your core values. Then speak your truth, tackle difficult conversations, and share feedback.
Making Decisions In a World of Limitless Options
My Top Five Life Hacks
Change doesn’t happen overnight. Intention is a habit to develop and habits take 90 days to form. While the above exercises will help you take control of your life, I also rely on a few life hacks to keep me on track. Take a look, try a few, and let them inspire your own list.
Focus on sleep
“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” Are you sleeping? Eating? Exercising? If we all got enough sleep, we would be better prepared to deal with daily challenges. Sleep regulates cortisol, repairs muscle, boosts the immune system, improves mood, improves cognition, makes us more alert, aids our sense of humor, reduces depression, and helps burn fat. I try to get eight to nine hours of sleep each night.
Journal every day
I journal for five minutes each day and list:
My North Star, the most important thing that guides me.
Three major goals for the year.
Three goals for the day.
Three important interactions today and how I want to show up for them.
When I have a bit more time to journal, I ask powerful, expansive questions like these:
If I showed up as the best version of myself, what would that look like?
What’s the North Star in my relationship, career, or life?
Prioritize the right people
Notice who you spend your life with, and ask yourself:
Who gives you energy? Spend more time with them. How can you show up more like them?
Who drains your energy? Avoid spending too much time with them.
Own your time
Take control of your calendar.
What can you remove? Say no more often.
Schedule:
Time for sleep, exercise, thinking, and writing.
Coaching or journal time.
Time to answer key questions.
Systems beat willpower. I schedule repeating events for anything especially important, including:
Annual retreats
Quarterly offsites
Monthly brainstorming
Weekly 1:1 meetings
Control your technology, don’t let your technology control you
Take control of your phone. We look at our phones 80 times per day on average.
Make your phone a daily learning and motivation machine, not a social media wormhole. You can read a book each week on audible, listen to podcasts, or watch videos.
Remove your social media. Not one person I know regrets doing this.
Turn on airplane mode or as I like to call it, the “freedom” app.
Batch your emails and answer them once each day. Avoid refreshing your inbox.
Feeling inspired? Have your own life hack to share? Send me a note at grahamweaverblog@gmail.com and I’ll feature selected answers in a future post.
