Context: Last summer, I was on an eighteen-hour flight to Shanghai and decided to journal. It was at a time in my life where I was doing a lot of soul-searching, and writing my thoughts down really helped me clarify what I truly believed in. I just stumbled across this journal entry in my Notes app, and when reading it, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride for the self-awareness of my eight-months-younger self. Living with intention has never been more important than in the noisy modern world that we live in today. I hope this reflection serves as a helpful reminder for you like it did for me.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the fortune of having several thought-provoking conversations with a select handful of highly successful individuals. These individuals, most of whom are self-made founders and CEOs of immensely valuable companies and institutions, are incredibly diverse with respect to their background stories, skillsets, and temperaments. At the same time, they all share one trait that has served as the foundation of each and every one of their respective successes: an extraordinary dedication to living with intention.
First, what does living with intention even mean?
Living with intention is twofold. In order to live intentionally, one must: 1) understand oneself so deeply that one’s vision for their future becomes apparent; and 2) exercise unwavering commitment to one’s future in order to act in a way that aligns with one’s vision.
While one’s initial vision for their future will almost never be exactly as expected, it is not the accuracy of one’s future vision that matters, but rather one’s commitment to whatever vision one believes in at that given moment, that truly differentiates those who simply dream from those who succeed.
And while living intentionally is no winning lottery ticket, as the old adage goes, “success is where opportunity meets preparation.” By choosing to live your life intentionally, you lay the groundwork for success by preparing for the moment an opportunity opens.
In a nutshell, living with intention is about understanding one’s overarching “why?” and exercising rational decision-making with the question “why?” as one’s framework.
Living intentionally sounds simple, but if you’re at all in tune with your 21st-century human impulses, you’d know that living intentionally is far from simple. In a technologically ubiquitous, consumerist society where our clicks and watch time generate dollars, it is no surprise that our attention spans (especially those of younger generations) have been hijacked for profit, resulting in dangerously addictive media platforms that have been algorithmically engineered to keep us hooked.
If you’re anything like me, you probably grew up surrounded by a lot of high-stimulation technology. From childhood TV to video games and social media, the amount of instant gratification available to malleable minds nowadays is copious, and one thing’s for sure — it’s not going anywhere. If anything, the amount and efficacy of such gratification outlets will likely only grow alongside advancements in technology that make it easier and easier to escape from one’s reality.
Escapism is the antonym of intentional living — it is the antithesis of personal growth, and its correlation with technological advancement is among the most pressing societal challenges humans face today.
Everyone has been guilty of escapism at some point, but what really matters is one’s ability to confront escapism, look it in the eyes, and deny its tantalizing invitations with unwavering confidence and a sense of self. To live intentionally is to live life with as close of a sense of free will as we know it, and each time we refuse to compromise our deeper desires by casting aside our primal urges (or, ironically, our algorithmically trained ones) in favor of purpose and rationality, we gain a little more authority over our own lives — a valuable currency in the unpredictable, complex system that we call our universe.
As a final note, I’d like to thank all of the individuals with whom I’ve recently had the chance to have a deep discussion of living intentionally and purpose. Learning from you all, both through your actions and your stories, has taught me the value of intentional living, and through our joint reflection, you have genuinely helped me shape the way I think and reaffirm my sense of self. For that, I’ll be forever grateful.
— Ben
6/21/23, 2:57 AM.
