Episode 844 Intentionality in Life
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 844 of the inspired stewardship podcast. Hi,
[00:00:07] Alain Huskin: [00:00:07] I'm Alain Huskin, author of cracking the leadership code. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
[00:00:23] Having the ability to lead well is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer,
[00:00:39] Scott Maderer: [00:00:39] then you can begin to say, Hey. It's not about being perfect and it's not about knowing everything that's coming down the pike. I can actually plan around the fact that there are things that I don't know. It's the difference between something being unexpected and unplanned. You can actually plan for the unexpected, whether that's in your time [00:01:00] or in your money.
[00:01:01] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling. In the inspired stewardship podcast, we'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:27]In today's episode about investing in others through stewarding your talent. I talk with you about why intentionality is often the key to success. I explain why intentionality doesn't mean perfection or even knowing what's coming. And I also explain why all too often, we live someone else's intention instead of our own.
[00:01:48] You've heard me talk about developing your talent and what are the best ways to do that is through books. But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why [00:02:00] today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial.
[00:02:10] There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via audible. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. One of those things that's come up a lot this week, as I've been working with clients is around this idea of being intentional.
[00:02:39]It doesn't matter whether it's your time, whether it's your money or even if it's you, yourself, your self-development, your health, your wellbeing, your relationships, whatever component of life you want to talk about. The truth is that one of the keys to success, one of the keys to getting what you want out of life, one of the keys to [00:03:00] feeling like you're a success is around intentionality.
[00:03:04] Are you doing things in your life on purpose or are you letting your life happen to you? What I mean by that is when you sit down and think about what happens in your typical day. Is your typical day, one of just responding and going from an emergency to an emergency going from one thing to the next and just struggling to get by struggling to make everything get done, just running from emergency to emergency.
[00:03:36] It is your money life one where you're constantly dealing with sudden unexpected events and having to struggle to make ends meet or feeling like I weight make way too much money to feel this broke, or you're just going from crisis to crisis or from an emergency to emergency and never feeling like you're getting ahead.
[00:03:54] Are your relationships constantly responsive where it's all based on what [00:04:00] other people do and say. You're not being deliberate in building relationships is your lifelong learning activity. Really not lifelong learning, but instead you barely know what you need to know to get by. And you're constantly coming from behind.
[00:04:17] That's living a reactive life, a life where life is happening to you instead of you happening to life. Intentionality is about being. Being proactive. It's about thinking about what you want to happen, planning what you want to happen and doing it. And a lot of times at this point, people start pushing back and saying, but we like to be spontaneous.
[00:04:43] We want to just react and go with the flow. There's nothing wrong with being spontaneous. There's nothing wrong with going with the flow. There's nothing wrong with doing things on the spur of the moment or without a plan. But even [00:05:00] there, you have to be intentional around where you allow that spontaneity to occur in how you do it, because there's always a trade-off.
[00:05:09] If you're choosing to be spontaneous in one area of your life, that means you're now not able to do something else. There's always an opportunity cost for every decision, for every action for every dollar, for every minute that you spend, there's a opportunity cost. The funny thing is intentionality.
[00:05:30] A lot of times people say I can't be intentional because I don't know what's coming. I don't know what the future holds, but intentionality is not about knowing what's coming next. It's not about being perfect or having everything dialed in and you get up and a robot and you go through the day and it always happens exactly the same way.
[00:05:51] Instead. Intentionality is about. Thinking about what you want out of life. It's about getting back to your why, your [00:06:00] values, your priorities, what's really important to you, and then recognizing the opportunity cost in your life. Recognizing that you can only do so much with your time. You can only do so much with your money.
[00:06:14] You can only achieve so much at any one time. And when you recognize that. Then you can begin to say, Hey, it's not about being perfect. And it's not about knowing everything that's coming down the pike. I can actually plan around the fact that there are things that I don't know. It's the difference between something being unexpected and unplanned.
[00:06:37] You can actually plan. For the unexpected, whether that's in your time or in your money. And as you do that, you begin to respond proactively. And with intentionality, with the decision you make the trade offs and you decide on the opportunity costs and you choose the one that you want instead of living a life of [00:07:00] regret, instead of looking back and going, why in the world did this happen to me?
[00:07:07] Even if it's something bad, you still happen to it. You happen to it with deliberation and with intentionality. But oftentimes what ends up happening is we end up living someone else's intention for our life instead of our own. This could be the intention of a parent being pushed onto the child. This could be the intention of a spouse.
[00:07:31] This could be the intention of a coworker or a boss or someone else in your life. It could be something from a positive influence or from a negative one from a bad or toxic relationship, because the truth is. If you don't have a plan for your life, if you're not living with some sort of intentional decision-making, if you're just reacting to the world and to what comes up, then by definition, you have [00:08:00] to be living someone else's intention.
[00:08:03] Because those people that do not live their life proactively that lived their life. Reacting are reacting to people who do live their life proactively. And that subtle shift in your mindset and your belief can begin to move you from being a victim, to being someone who's in control, even when bad things happen.
[00:08:30] And that intentionality, that belief, that deliberate act can completely change your life. Thanks for listening.
[00:08:41]Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the [00:09:00] stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent.
[00:09:06] And sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent, or if you're in the U S you can text four, four, two, two, two talent tips. That's talent tips to four four, two, two, two, and get those tips until next time. Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .