Intention Deficit Disorder

intention

A few years ago, I was having one of my many panic attacks while trying to finish one of my many books before one of my many deadlines. Not one to wallow in my own suffering, I looked for help and found Candice. I’m sure I’ve written about her before. She is a life coach and really helped me look at my stresses in a new way so I could manage them. One of my biggest issues was Life vs. Work. As a writer, you really need to enter what I call The Cone Of Silence and stay there for many straight hours.

There are no texts inside the cone. No phone calls. No e-mails. No paying bills. No online shopping. No visits from friends. No doing dishes. No haircuts. No waxes. No mani’s or pedi’s. No reading. No listening to music with lyrics. No helping old people or ducklings cross the road.

It’s a cone.

A silent one.

And there’s only room for me.

So when do all those other things get done? Not on the weekends. The weekends are for my kids. Not at night. That’s when I decompress. Candace’s suggestion? Create one non-writing day every week–preferably the same day–and make it about your to-do list.

I made mine Wednesdays. And I’m so in love with it I want to marry it. This is the day I do all the other stuff that life’s vomiting in my face, and it’s worked incredibly well.

Another thing I recently discovered is Intent.com

The website was created by Mallika Chopra (yes, daughter of Deepak, but she is so much more). She wrote a book called Living With Intent that has brought so much meaning to my life. For those of you who are inundated with exams and not quite ready for a summer reading list, I suggest you join the website and get the app. It’s a game-changer.

Taking a moment to think about what you want each day really helps you get it. It’s so simple and so effective. And it doesn’t have to be spiritual or deep in any way. Look for mine, you’ll see. It can be about anything–no one judges. In fact, everyone supports.

You can also:

* Share your intents with other community members.
* Receive encouraging comments on your intents.
* Show your support for other people’s intents.
* Adopt other people’s intents that you can relate to.
* Sync your account with Twitter and Facebook so that your intents are automatically shared with your Twitter and Facebook friends.
* Reaffirm you intents every day so you stay on top of your goals.
* Track the intents that you completed or accomplished.
* Add inspirational or informational photos and videos to your intent.

Let me know when you’re on so I can follow you.

I intend to TTYW,

Lisi

3 Comments

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  • deseraemcg says:

    I am so scared to try this! I think because I am afraid of disappointing myself if I don’t follow through. I do this all the time— make public proclamations of what I am SO gonna do. And then I don’t do them. Haha! I even intend to be better with that, and I just flop. Right now I am floppier than ever. I don’t know how to break the cycle of slump I’ve found myself in except to just keep throwing myself at the walls to see what happens. I think the only things I can really intend to do at the moment is eat some dinner, take a shower, pray. And then throw myself at these walls again. Once I break ’em down, I’ll join this site and see if it helps me stay on level ground!!!

  • Shaila Gottlieb says:

    Hi Lisi,

    Your advice is always spot on!! You are such an amazing role model and inspiration to young(and old) people!

    The thing I have always admired about your books and your blahgs is that you use your platform to inspire us and uplevel us so that we can be the best version of ourselves. Your advice is sage, and it’s spooned out in a loving and fun way, which makes relating to it and following it easy.

    Thanks.

    SG

  • Kaitlyn says:

    I’ll have to check that out! What i’ve been using this to keep myself organized this year is my erin condren life planner! I’ve been using it since January and i’ve never been more organized in my life. It’s arranged in to three spaces per day, morning, day and night. I basically use it as a to do list. I write down everything that i want to accomplish that day and it’s a nice visual reminder and it’s helpful to keep track of homework. I also use stickers and washi tape to make certain things stick out! I honestly don’t see how I lived before I had it!

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