Intentional Living

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#314 You don’t need to see progress every day

In the moment, I don’t feel like a yoga pose comes easy to me – until I look back to how it felt 6 months ago.

In the moment, I don’t really feel like particularly good writer – until I look back on how hard it was to write these daily insights a year ago.

You don’t need to see progress every single day to know that you’re getting better.

Because the things that truly matter often change so slowly that you don’t notice them… unless you take the time to reflect on them.

Changes too small to notice today become impossible to ignore when they stack up.

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#304 Responsibility brings opportunity

After writing over 300 daily blog posts (and journaling for 926 days), here’s my main takeaway:

Once you decide you’re responsible for writing that daily sentence, learning that language, doing that workout…

Once you decide you’re responsible for making it happen, no matter the circumstances or external events (travel, sickness, emergencies,…)

That’s when you’ll notice that there are very few excuses that truly stop you from making it happen.

And that’s when you have the opportunity to become who you’ve always wanted to be.

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#303 Why you do what you do

I don’t know yet what I want to say today, and I write anyway.

I write anyway because it’s the only way to figure out what I want to say.

I do yoga because it’s the only way to understand why yoga is important.

I run because it’s the only way to figure out why running is worth it.

I spend time with family because it’s the only way to understand why love is important.

There’s no need to wait for reasons of motivation.

You do what you do to figure out why you’re doing it.

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#295 When dreaming is enough

Do you really want to write a book? Or do you actually want to dream about writing a book?

Do you really want to drop everything and move to a sea-side town? Or do you want to dream about dropping everything and move to a sea-side town?

Both are fine. Both can be fulfilling, because often, having a dream is enough.

But both are not the same.

Only you will know if it’s the dream that makes you happy, or the action you want to take.

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#294 The true purpose of goals

Goals make you write every day and enjoy the process, even if you’ll never publish a book.

Goals make you practice yoga and get to know your body, even if you’ll never be able to be in that ultimate pose.

Goals makes you help someone and learn to give and contribute, even if your help ultimately doesn’t get them to the place they wanted to go.

Goals don’t predict outcomes. Because the purpose of a goal is not to achieve it, but to set the direction of your life.

It gives you the fuel to start taking action, and the guidance to make sure that action is intentional.

I don’t know about you, my friend, but to me, that’s a fulfilling thought.

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#292 The obstacle course hidden beneath your goals

If you think you know how to write a story but never do it, do you really know how to write a story?

If you think you know how to do a yoga pose but never do it, do you really know how to do that yoga pose?

If you think you know how to apologize for a mistake but never do it, do you really know how to apologize?

If you know what you want to do but aren’t doing it, do you really know what you want?

Because hidden beneath your goals and technical step-by-step instructions to accomplish them, there’s an obstacle course of personal context, personal beliefs, past experiences, and emotions.

And these, you won’t discover in books or videos.

These, you’ll encounter by doing.

And these, you’ll conquer by doing.

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