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Live your live with purpose and make every action intentional. Don’t let life just happen to you. You get to choose the life you live by the actions you take on a daily basis.

How can you improve your health – physically, intellectually, spiritually, financially, relationally, or emotionally? If you’ve mostly optimized your life and can’t (or aren’t willing) to make drastic changes, can you do something to incrementally change your life for the better? Why do you do things a certain way? Do you need to do it that way or can it be done better, without spending an inordinate amount of time or effort? Do you need to be doing that task at all?

If you don’t take time to regularly reflect on your life and your actions, it’s easy to let things drift away. Then, when you start paying attention again, you find that you’re way off course. Somehow, you’ve gained 50 lbs., haven’t read a book for pleasure in years, don’t know a single person from your church, are not even close to being on track for retirement, and haven’t seen friends/family who are (or were) important to you. It’s easy to blow something off once or twice. You think, I’ll do that next time. But if you’re not careful, if you’re not intentional, you may find yourself a year down the road in poor health in one or more of the areas listed above.

Make sure that you’re doing what is right, always. Don’t try to take short cuts. If you take some time off, make sure that you start back up as soon as possible. Because the more time you take off, the harder it will be to come back. Be intentional with your actions and you’ll be amazed at the progress you make.

Three B’s for achieving your goals (inspired by Irrational Labs)…

1. Understand BEHAVIOR. Be specific with your goals and why you do what you do.

2. Reduce/eliminate BARRIERS. How can you make things easier? Can you delegate, eliminate, or automate this? Remove the obstacles (especially ones that are recurring) and you’ll save energy to focus on your actual goals.

3. Increase BENEFITS. Design a reward system that encourages positive behavior that drives you towards your goals.

Make sure you are making it safe to connect with others when talking with them.

Do not roll your eyes, make snarky comments, or shut their ideas down.

Don’t interrupt them.

Don’t check your phone when they’re talking.

All of these things will shut the conversation down or possibly lead to arguments.

The best way to win an argument is to avoid it.

Forgive others, but do not expect them to forgive you. You cannot make them forgive you, so don’t base your happiness on your ability to reconcile with that other person.

Focus on what you can control and let the rest go.

One key to success is to get good at “doing.” Don’t plan on starting something, just do it. Take action. Talking and planning is good, but you will never have all of the information you desire. You’ll never be 100% ready to take something on. The key is to do it anyways.