In a great example of resurfacing your older content for your followers, Justin Welsh recently re-shared his 2021 article Designing an Intentional Life, which touches on his 9 drivers needed to ensure your ability to design an intentional life.
It’s an interesting (and fairly quick read, but at the end of Justin’s article, he listed 9 questions (one for each driver) to ask yourself to help you always be improving toward actually being able to intentionally design your life. Without critically addressing these drivers, he posits, you won’t actually be able to make progress.
As I’ve been revisiting a bunch of Sean Johnson’s Building an Intentional Life program I was curious as to how I stacked up.
Let’s take a look.
Your purpose:
Do you truly appreciate time as currency?
I like to think that I do, but I can honestly say that I am probably still wasteful with it. I have started to shape my life around valuing it more and hope to be able to keep it that way, but… life doesn’t always cooperate.
What is your motivation for time freedom?
Being able to spend more time with my family and following my own interests. Time freedom > money freedom. But… financial self-sufficiency > time freedom.
How have you curated an environment that supports your goal?
I’ve cut down on the politics (a bit, but probably still room). I try to ruthlessly cut negative people out of my life and am actively trying to foster those that are encouraging and supportive. I try to be encouraging, supportive, and helpful to others. I’ve started rebuilding my daily routine to better support my family and health.
Your discipline:
Do you assume full responsibility for your life?
I like to think I do, but I’m sure there are still times when I wish things would just be different instead of more actively working to fix things. I might have those moments of self-wallowing when things don’t go as intended, but I tend to catch myself and get back to work. Can probably be better at analyzing and retrospecting though.
What changes have you made to help design a life with more intention?
The biggest change was that I no longer had a 9-5 (not by choice), but it allowed me to shift my primary day-to-day focus to being a better partner to @kelseylk and father to our son. From there, I was able to more deliberately start tweaking my routines and habits step by step.
What system(s) have you built for creating strong habits?
Thanks to Sean, I’ve been putting a bunch of systems in place to help remove some of the mental loads. When I start my work day, I have my boot-up sequence that has evolved from Sahil Bloom’s 5-5-5-30. I also have my Personal OS built in @notion to help track tasks, people, and events.
Your action:
How often are you sharing your opinions and work freely online?
I’m tweeting daily (though sometimes I’m not entirely sure how authentic the tweets are… I’ll be honest that I’ve been phoning it in lately and trying to just not break my streak) and trying to ship new newsletters and projects on a weekly basis. Need to get better about promoting these more though. I’d also like to establish more deliberate exploration time without the immediate expectation of publishing.
When interesting opportunities come your way, are you seizing them?
I’d like to think I am. I took the opportunity to build leaderbird.co with KP. Trying to stay open & participate in more conversations that'll hopefully lead to more opportunities.
Are you staying consistent and creating compound momentum?
My 60-day tweet streak and 12-week newsletter streak have been pretty consistent. Not sure about the compounding momentum though. I know I’ve been consistently hustling and trying to take care of my family, which I feel is in good shape. I probably need to do a better job of more deliberate and structured writing time though.
All in all, I think I’m doing pretty good. Definitely room for improvement, so as I continue to evolve my processes and habits, I’ll be sure to keep these questions in mind to help ensure I’m deliberately working toward my goals and not self-sabotaging.
How do you fair? Do you think there’s something to this? What are you doing to ensure you’re living the life that you want to live?