Living with Intention

While attending my teaching certification classes, I was introduced to a concept that made an impression on me… ‘teaching with intention’. The idea was that teaching had to be a daily deliberate act where an outcome was designed, implemented, and then analyzed for effectiveness. Teachers who taught with intention had greater success in their classrooms than teachers that came in and taught haphazardly.

While I no longer pursue a career in the teaching field, I still find myself thinking about that deliberate intentional approach to a situation -especially of late. The last couple of years of my life have been so hectic as I’ve gone through physical, emotional, and career changes, I didn’t do a lot of self reflection on a large scale. Now that my job has calmed down, and my body isn’t changing on a daily basis, I think it is time to take a critical look and determine where to go from here.

One thing I would like to do is take the concept of ‘teaching with intention’ and change it to ‘living with intention’. I would like to start approaching each day by identifying what challenges or tasks I need to accomplish, and develop a plan towards their achievement.  Then at the end of the day, I want to do some self-reflection to see where I succeeded, and where I didn’t do so well.  

I also want to work towards determining and implementing long range goals. My life is practically half over, and as I look back, I see so much wasted time. I don’t want to look back ten years from now, and feel the same way. It will be hard to change old habits and create new ones, but I don’t know if I can live haphazardly anymore and still have a modicum of self respect.