Intentionality

I'm not certain that intentionality is a word, but it doesn't set off the spell checker in Word, so I guess I'm okay to use it. I was thinking about the post I wrote on the morning that Jason left for his week-long business trip and I'm curious about the relationship between our intentions and the resulting actions in our lives.

When he left I wrote about how much I tend to rely on him, and how I don't like to be apart, but for this trip I was going to work on having fun with the kids and enjoying the change of pace. We are on day 5 now, and it's going like a dream. The sun is shining, the kids are happy and well behaved, and I'm relaxed and having fun.

So much of our destiny is controlled by our attitude. I'm not convinced that my intentions could make the weather gorgeous (if so, I should've worked harder on my attitude during the beginning of May when it was blizzarding), but being positive has definitely set the mood for our household during this week.

I'm a firm believer in the "if you dream it, you can become it" school of thought. It has brought me this far in life and I'm confident that it will get me to my dream of being a professional writer. But dreams are meant for small things too, and I think it's worth investing time to think about how you want each day to go, and adjust your attitude accordingly.

I don't want to lose control of my attitude and outlook, as that is firmly under my control. Many things will happen to me that I can't predict and that I don't like, but I always have a choice as to how I will react and behave in any situation. I want to be intentional about my attitude from this point on; to be positive instead of negative, even in the smallest things.

I know that my determination to have a good week has been tied into the fact that I am having a good week. It's like turning a light on and having the room flood with light instead of fumbling around in the dark, banging my shin on the furniture and grumbling under my breath. It was an experiment in attitude and I've been amazed by the results. What else can I try intentionality with? It's a new way to look at the world, and so far, it's really working.