The practice of setting intentions, and the habit of being intentional, is something that I work on with almost every client. While we know what we want at an intuitive level, many of us find ourselves in auto-pilot and miss opportunities to move ourselves forward.
Last month, as the days before summer break closed in, I decided that I would get my boys (including my husband) involved in setting some family intentions for our summer. With four opinionated humans in our family, my intention was to create a way for us to all contribute to our summer planning.
Here is a sample of some of my intentions with this family project:
- I want our kids to be clear about what they want AND be able communicate what they want.
- I want us to be a family that dreams together.
- I want my partner to feel empowered and encouraged to build more fun and intention into his summer.
- I want each of us to know the people, activities, and goals that are important to the others, and for us all to feel invested in each person having the summer of our own creating.
- I want to model growing my business alongside nurturing our family.
- I want my kids to practice writing, reading, and sharing. (1st and 3rd grade, here we come!)
I posted colored paper on walls throughout our common area of the house. I asked questions about the who’s, what’s, where’s and how’s that would make them feel fantastic about this summer, and would contribute to our growth as a family.
From these sheets we have ideas of activities we could do together and alone, places we each want to visit, friends we want to see, actions we can take to help others, and many other questions that you might be asked if your mom were a life coach.
My favorite question was, “How do you want to feel?” Our answers included: joyful, cool, happy, thankful, relaxed (twice – once by each parent), peaceful, loved. Yes, please!
Just like many of you, I want downtime with people, time for the activities I love AND I want to grow myself professionally and personally. My family and I have created the framework for an amazing summer. No matter what *actually* happens, we’ve already taken the step towards being more intentional and connected.
Be intentional about what you want and you’ll find more space to make it happen. And if you are willing to share your intentions, you’ll be one step closer to making it happen.
“Summertime is always the best of what might be.”
– Charles Boden
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