Intentional Life Quotes & Sayings

Impact is never about knowing all the steps ahead, but about taking one intentional step after the other. — Bidemi Mark-Mordi

What we believe about something often creates the outcome we experience. — Michael Hyatt

Our lives are shaped by the questions we ask. Good questions lead to good outcomes. Bad questions lead to bad outcomes. — Michael Hyatt

Without a clear destination in view, the challenges on the journey seem pointless. — Michael Hyatt

Do whatever it takes to increase your sensitivity to the little things in life you wouldn't otherwise notice, much less savor, if your autopilot setting is hurry. You've got to power down frequently enough to enjoy the effects of intentional living. — Tsh Oxenreider

You can't improve what you won't face and own. — Michael Hyatt

Friendship evangelism is great, but it does not enable the gospel to travel beyond our social networks, unless there are intentional attempts to build friendships with people who are not like us. John Mark Hobbins of London City Mission says, 'Many people live in networks which take precedence over their address, and many churches have grown because of this. But the reality for many people living in social housing or in cheaper housing is that their address is very likely to define their daily life. — Tim Chester

To intentionally pass on opportunity is to intentionally pass on living. — Craig D. Lounsbrough

But to be perfectly frank, this childish idea that the author of a novel has some special insight into the characters in the novel ... it's ridiculous. That novel was composed of scratches on a page, dear. The characters inhabiting it have no life outside of those scratches. What happened to them? They all ceased to exist the moment the novel ended. — John Green

FROM ITS VERY INCEPTION, The Farm was established as a "spiritual community" and registered with the state of Tennessee as The Farm Church. Stephen taught and the community recognized that intentional communities founded on spiritual principles were much more likely to survive beyond a few years, and there was history to back up that belief. Over the last 200 years of intentional communities in America, those based on political or social economic ideals had a life span of around 10 years, while those founded on spiritual principles typically endured 25 years or more. The spiritual awakening experienced by the hippie generation is what made The Farm happen, and why it exists today. Community is so much more than the buildings and the roads and the trees. It takes spiritual connection to endure. — Douglas Stevenson

I believe all life has value, from conception to natural death. And I believe the intentional taking of human life, except to save lives, should be a capital offense, as it is in most states in America today. — Tom Coburn

What is most lacking in the modern world of duplications and facsimiles, of endless information and intentional misinformation, is the authenticity that makes life truly meaningful and spiritually rewarding. — Michael Meade

You can't change the past, but all of us have the power to change the future. — Michael Hyatt

We can't improve what we don't assess. — Michael Hyatt

[About sex]: If we're not intentional about pursuing God's best for our marriages, and grasping the tremendous role intimacy plays in that relationship, what was intended to be deeply enjoyed - a passionate, life-giving love affair... alight with laughter, fiercely protected, and drenched in freedom - becomes a stuffy, awkward thing to be endured. — Joy McMillan

What get's scheduled gets done. — Michael Hyatt

Having priorities is essential. So is having them in the right order. — Michael Hyatt

forgiveness. It is not in denying the hopeless days that take place when others reject us or turn on us. It is not in minimizing the pain we experience at the hands of those who seem bent on ruining our lives. People turn on people. They betray one another. Crass unkindness, vicious plottings, horrible and intentional antagonisms are shown, and calling it a hopeless day hardly describes the extended season of struggle that many of us face at times. But there is a lesson at Calvary. Forgive everyone - anyone - whom you think has failed you, hurt you, offended you. If you think they've done anything to ruin your day, ruin your life, ruin your opportunities, ruin your dreams, or block your goals - forgive them. Forgiving others is the key to living in the liberty of the freeing forgiveness Jesus has given us, and it's the first step toward finding hope for a hopeless day, not to mention opening the door to new days unimagined. — Jack W. Hayford

So many of us have settled for what is, rather than what could be. — Michael Hyatt

The more belief and confidence we feel toward achieving our goal, the higher the probability of our making the changes required to hit our targets. — Michael Hyatt

In an evolutionary context, the goal of the spiritual life is not peace; it's perpetual development. Evolutionary enlightenment is about the ecstasy that compels us to create the future. And it's not a future that's going to unfold by itself while we go back to sleep. It's a future that we forge the hard way through direct, conscious, intentional engagement with the life-process itself. — Andrew Cohen

I'm at the tipping point of a transformation that began months ago, an intentional decision put in motion. And it feels so fucking good. I've come to the full realization that my happiness, my life, falls squarely on my shoulders. No one's gonna do it for it me. I'm the one who makes it or breaks it. It's a choice. A choice that demands action in exchange for reward. Idleness and complacency lead to mediocrity. Sometimes action is really fucking hard fought, but that's when the payoff's the highest. That's when great things happen. Not good things ... but epic things. And I've fallen in love with epic. It's the only way to live. — Kim Holden

In life, you often get what you expect. — Michael Hyatt

Make your life a meaningful one — Sunday Adelaja

Be conscious of your actions daily — Sunday Adelaja

Product must be intentional — Sunday Adelaja

You get what you focus on. What we see ahead impacts the actions we take right now. How we live and lead is directly connected to what we see. — Michael Hyatt

There is not point keeping up with the Joneses if they're going someplace you don't want to go. — Michael Hyatt

if sentient life recognised the futility of its existence, if it recognised that it had been born on the line and was eternally bonded to the perverted servitude of another who does not - and will never - hold council to discuss emancipation, then it is inevitable that birth rates among all self-aware creatures would plummet as reproduction itself would be viewed as an unconscionable and outrageous act of unforgivable selfishness. Being freely acting, morally autonomous, and presented with an insufferable reality, complex conscious life would find no option but to rebel, and to rebel completely by deploying the only weapon it had against the architect of its unforgiving world: a massive denial of service; self-administered, intentional extinction. Revolutionary suicide. — John Zande

You need to see a future with such clarity and desirability that you will go through all the uncomfortable things like throws at you to attain it. — Michael Hyatt

Not asking questions: Giving up on your dreams: Settling for less than you deserve causes you pain, a pain owned by the majority.

Be among the few who are inquisitive, forge plans to chase their dreams and take intentional action to live the life aligned with their potential. — Tony Curl

God's design for taking the gospel to the world is a slow, intentional, simple process that involves every one of his people sacrificing every facet of their lives to multiply the life of Christ in others. — David Platt

Faith is not the belief that everything will be all right tomorrow, but the belief that I possess the strength to make everything all right today. — Charles F. Glassman

Every person writes his or her life story similar to how a musician composes music. Author Milan Kundera noted, 'Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of great distress.' Guided by their aesthetic sense of beauty, a person transforms the intentional and fortuitous events of their life into an expressive episodic motif, which artistic creation assumes a permanent place in the composition of his or her conscious mind. — Kilroy J. Oldster

Be intentional in every aspect of your life. Happen to your life instead of letting life happen to you! — Bruce Van Horn

Everyone receives spiritual formation, just as everyone gets an education. The only question is whether it is a good one or a bad one. We need to take a conscious, intentional hand in the developmental process. We need to understand what the formation of the human spirit is, and how it can best be done as Christ would have it done. This is an indispensable aspect of developing a psychology that is adequate to human life. — Dallas Willard

Sometimes too much tolerance can kill you.If you are tolerant of people poisoning themselves to death they will drag you down. They will ruin your life by being intentional obstacles to your dreams. — Ted Nugent

It takes definitive action to see positive gains. — Michael Hyatt

Live your everyday extraordinary! — Charles F. Glassman

One's personal life and work are inseparable. — Michael Hyatt

Intentional reflection connects thoughts with emotions and leads to transformation. As Robert Saucy reminds us: "The deeper something is in our heart, the more it influences our life. — Joanne J. Jung

Nothing threatens freedom of the personality and the meaning of life like war, poverty, terror. But there are also indirect and only slightly more remote dangers. One of these is the stupefaction of man (the "gray mass," to use the cynical term of bourgeois prognosticators) by mass culture with its intentional or commercially motivated lowering of intellectual level and content, with its stress on entertainment or utilitarianism, and with its carefully protective censorship. — Andrei Sakharov

Be intentional about your life and what you want to accomplish, but understand there's no choice you make that you can't change. — Gloria Feldt

You are in a much better position to serve others when your basic needs are met and your "tank is full". — Michael Hyatt

We have more control than most of us realize. Each day is filled with thousands of opportunities to change the story of our lives. — Michael Hyatt

It was about more fully inhabiting the life I have, not creating a new one. — Patti Digh

When you are influential and highly respected, people tend to tell you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear. They are seeking your approval, or they flatter you. Unfortunately, this creates a gap between what you hear and reality. If you find yourself in that situation, you will need to work extra hard to get the people close to you to speak honestly into your life. And you will have to become highly intentional in observing and listening. — John C. Maxwell

You can't get where you want to go unless you start with where you are. — Michael Hyatt

But then once you get out and start to see your situation, I mean, from Godview, you know, when you can see the big picture, it kinda makes you wanna change things about yourself. Get intentional about life. — Tim Z. Hernandez

You must create more margin so you have room for what's important, not merely urgent. — Michael Hyatt

Balance only happens in dynamic tension. Balance is giving not equal but appropriate attention to each of the various categories of your life. — Michael Hyatt

You have been given a gift - your life. What will you do with it? — Michael Hyatt

Accept the good, however big or small, with no strings attached. — Charles F. Glassman

Unless we take the time to regain our perspective and face the reality that life is short, we risk arriving at a destination we didn't choose - or at least one we wouldn't prefer. — Michael Hyatt

We weren't living the way we wanted because we weren't making the choices it required. Like so many in our generation of thirtysomething parents, we spoke of a slower, more intentional life, but we expected it to just happen. — Tsh Oxenreider

What do I wish I could be doing if money or status were not an issue? — Michael Hyatt

What life can you create when those activities spent "killing" or "wasting" time were put into the quest for a better you? What would your life be like if instead of "chilling and net flicks" you devoted time to wellness and thinking? A much better life awaits you with some simple choices, backed by intentional actions. — Tony Curl

Some of the greatest insights we have ever experienced were those we least expected. — Michael Hyatt

As an introverted person, I struggle even writing about community because I know how difficult it often is for me to walk across the room to converse with people. People often drain the energy out of me, and too often I prefer to protect myself rather than engage in relationships with people. For some of us who are more extroverted, community is a way of life, yet I wonder how intentional even the most extroverted person is about making community a holiness-shaping thing. Community with God's people ultimately shapes us to reflect more of who God is. — Tyler Braun

To you to live a significant life, you have to become intentional. — John C. Maxwell

How do you get the happy ending? John Irving ought to know. One of my favorite authors, Irving writes these multigenerational epics of fiction that somehow work out in the end. How does he do it? He says, 'I always begin with the last sentence ; then I work my way backwards, through the plot, to where the story should begin.' Thst sounds like a lot of work, especially compared to the fantasy that great writers sit down and just go where the story takes them. Irving lets us know that good stories and happy endings are more intentional than that.
Most 20 something's can't write the last sentence of their lives. But when pressed, they usually can identify things they want in their 30s or 40s or 60s -or things they don't want- and work backward from there. This is how you have your own multigenerational epic with a happy ending. This is how you live your life in real time. — Meg Jay

Anything worthwhile is opposed. — Michael Hyatt

Always be challenged to build your life intentionally for possessions. — Sunday Adelaja

Having clarity on where you want to go is one of the most critical components of your life. — Michael Hyatt

What does it mean to feel "in control" of your life? What I mean by control is the ability to make a choice. Personal sovereignty means that you choose from what is available in order to be intentional about your life ... When you feel in control of your life, you know yourself to be the author of your own actions and know that you always have choices. — Polly Young-Eisendrath

Thus the truth - that his life should be directed by the spiritual element which is its basis, which manifests itself as love, and which is so natural to man - this truth, in order to force a way to man's consciousness, had to struggle not merely against the obscurity with which it was expressed and the intentional and unintentional distortions surrounding it, but also against deliberate violence, which by means of persecutions and punishments sought to compel men to accept religious laws authorized by the rulers and conflicting with the truth. — Leo Tolstoy

A soul mate is someone to whom we feel profoundly connected, as though the communication and communing that take place between us were not the product of intentional efforts, but rather a divine grace. This kind of relationship is so important to the soul that many have said there is nothing more precious in life. — Thomas Moore

Life is too short not to start something stupid. — Richie Norton

The Lord's prescription for my ungrateful heart is not complicated. He asks me to choose to live each day from a place of intentional gratefulness. When my heart meditates on all that He has provided me through His death and resurrection, there is no room for churlishness. When I choose to make joy the foundation of my life, resentment and judgmental attitudes find no place in the dwelling of my heart. — Katherine J. Walden

Until we make the unconscious conscious, we will be dictated by it and call it fate. — Jerry Colonna

There are many forms of poverty: economic poverty, physical poverty, emotional poverty, mental poverty, and spiritual poverty. As long as we relate primarily to each other's wealth, health, stability, intelligence, and soul strength, we cannot develop true community. Community is not a talent show in which we dazzle the world with our combined gifts. Community is the place where our poverty is acknowledged and accepted, not as something we have to learn to cope with as best as we can but as a true source of new life.
Living community in whatever form - family, parish, twelve-step program, or intentional community - challenges us to come together at the place of our poverty, believing that there we can reveal our richness. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Those who feel satisfied with their personal lives are more satisfied with their careers and perform better. — Michael Hyatt

The bike does this; it is an apotheosis of self-sufficiency, in which a well-loved machine will unhesitatingly and quietly mediate intentional being into momentum. As you ride a bike and start to ride it well, there are moments when it becomes an affirmation of life devoid of separation and distinction; you ride through the earth unthinkingly rather than across it. There is no need to account for who you are in others' terms, in language, even. Your characteristics give way to your being. The effort put into the bike can take you out of your socialized, represented self into what Heidegger called 'disclosing self', where you simply are ever-shifting endeavour. — Robin Holt

I'm willing to explore what that's supposed to look like. I want to be intentional. I want it to show up in my life every day. I really try to live out my values and be consistent. Another things that has helped has been staying connected to a community of believers. It's important to be around others that share your beliefs and share your values and people that can encourage you. — Kelly Clark

When employees are working to attain passion and progress in every area of life, the are less likely to be cynical or apathetic. — Michael Hyatt

When we are gone, the only essential thing we will leave behind are the memories we create in the lives of those we have touched and those we love. — Michael Hyatt

You can do almost anything if you are willing to clarify your commitments and make incremental investments over time to achieve them. — Michael Hyatt

Be intentional and purposeful in your calling — Sunday Adelaja

The secret to staying atop your priorities is to schooled regular times for review and reflection. — Michael Hyatt

Don't imprison yourself through self-doubt. Break out of your self-imposed prison with intentional action. — Tony Curl

I'm sorry to see that again we are turning to the courts for decisions that concern ethics. I think theologians and ethicists would better guide us in such matters, ... If my memory serves me well, more than a decade ago The Episcopal Church said euthanasia or the intentional shortening of an individual's life, by lethal doses of drugs or otherwise, was not acceptable. — Susan P. Crawford

By keeping the truly important things front and center, we often get the perspective we need to make better decisions. — Michael Hyatt

Be intentional and choose to envision a life of significance, possibility, and impact. — Tony Dungy

I will tell you one thing that will make you rich for life. There are two struggles: an Inner-world struggle and an Outer-world struggle ... you must make an intentional contact between these two worlds; then you can crystallize data for the Third World, the World of the Soul. — G.I. Gurdjieff

Let me put it this way: I don't feel as settled as I look. I think that's true of everyone, probably. Except for Beyonce and Jay-Z. I don't think they wake up and think, 'Ugh, when's it going to work out for us? Why can't we catch a break?' Aside from them, I'm pretty sure everyone's life feels a lot less intentional. — Sloane Crosley

You should live your life in such a way as to intentionally invest every minute of it. — Sunday Adelaja

Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others' choices make us. — Richie Norton

What could be a better use of your time than establishing a game plan for your life? — Michael Hyatt

Satan had made it his aim to distract you from who you really are and what the purpose of your life really is. It is his focused objective to lure you out of the path of strength, life, and authority and into a course of intentional destruction. — Lisa Bevere

Events in one area of our lives cascade into every other area. — Michael Hyatt

A plan is worthless unless you review it on a regular basis. — Michael Hyatt

The longer you delay in seizing the treasure, the more likely you'll lose it. The time to act is now. — Michael Hyatt

You can't take care of anyone else unless you first take care of yourself. — Michael Hyatt

One lives in the very present moment; lives intently. There is no urge to be doing: being is the highest good. — Patrick O'Brian

How we live as leaders matters. — Michael Hyatt

Our decisions are the one thing we can control. Today's the day to make those choices really count. — Michael Hyatt

To live more voluntarily is to live more deliberately, intentionally and purposefully - in short, it is to live more consciously. We cannot be deliberate when we are distracted from life. We cannot be intentional when we are not paying attention. We cannot be purposeful when we are not being present. — Duane Elgin

Making appointments with yourself and scheduling other things around them is key to proactive self-management. — Michael Hyatt

I don't know if I learned anything new from this journey, but I now had a beautiful and peaceful vision of the kind of balance I wanted in my life. To be able to move calmly and peacefully from one thing to the next, each in its own time, without the pressure of other responsibilities pushing in on me. And always writing, in and around and among everything else, always writing. I loved her sense of purpose and awareness of the spirit in all things. She honors all things. And she has a purpose in the words she spreads, certain words for certain people, and she watches, and she celebrates the blossoming that comes from her words. She has a rhythm for her everyday life which is productive and intentional, measured and life-giving. — Marge Hulburt

The busier you are, the more intentional you must be. — Michael Hyatt