10 things you must manage for an intentional and purpose-driven life

Tiffany Sanya
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read
Unsplash-Hannah Wei

I wrote an article recently about 10 things to let go for a peaceful life. Here is the opposite side of the coin.

  1. Your mood, feelings, emotions and temperament
    People choose how they behave towards you, but you have the power over how you respond. To give them control is akin to being a puppet in their show where they can manipulate you to be either sad or angry etc. Same applies to managing your emotions in stressful moments. I for one have had to discipline myself to maintain a certain level of rationality when making decisions. You can’t always allow your feelings to intertwine with common sense.
  2. How you deal with people
    There are certain opportunities that will be inaccessible until you appreciate the value of relationships, either in the context of your career or unlocking the potential of a mastermind group. I look back on the stages in my life when I erroneously thought hard work on my part was enough and I failed to develop my personality. Transitioning to entrepreneurship has further intensified the need to not just be a corporate robot but to freely display the unique aspects of my personality when connecting with others.
  3. How you manage resources and finances
    I am still surprised that schools and universities don’t offer students a compulsory curriculum in managing money and being financially savvy. Yet they release so many intellectuals into the world who are often clueless about the science of ‘living within or ideally below your means’. Something I am eternally grateful to my dad for, who in his typical and traditional African values drummed into me to always ‘cut your coat according to your cloth’. Having a small pot of money aside can give you the financial freedom to quit a job that no longer fulfils you and follow your dreams. The decision to save regularly helped tide me over to do some back-packing, finance my business and live for a couple of months whilst I got it up and running. ‘Don’t buy what you want because you may end up begging for what you need’.
  4. Your thoughts
    If not careful they can wander into dark crevices that you won’t be able to bring them back from. As someone who faced a lot of rejection and failures early on in my career, I have had to train my thoughts so that I don’t consider myself a failure. Being able to make this distinction has helped me find the confidence to keep going even when all odds seemed stacked against me.
  5. Your energy
    Must accept that it is a limited resource and thus prone to depletion. Be selective of who and what you give it to. Find a rhythm of; create, rest, create, rest. Even with my ambitious self, I have come to realise that if not careful, burnout can destroy everything you worked hard for and make you detest what you thought was your purpose.
  6. Your focus
    You are most effective when focused so don’t aim to do it all. What appeared to be a life of stagnation was actually my erratic ambition to become everything. I had to be selective in order to commit then see results.
  7. Your decision-making process
    It is no secret that I lived with an indecisive spirit for a large part of my life. Even the most basic decision of what to have for lunch or what to wear would turn into full-blown consultations with my sister. Sounds amusing but it was extremely time wasting. I now reserve my cognitive processes for the decisions that matter!
  8. How you perceive yourself
    Those who go on to do great things often see something in themselves that others may not necessarily recognise. It takes courage to retain your worth and value in situations where others may be quick to tarnish it by treating you badly. Anyone who has experienced a major heartbreak can appreciate how it can make you question whether you are worthy of love. It takes strength to accept that it was just not the right person, time or conditions. You have to separate your value and move on with confidence. Don’t allow their neglect to be your destiny.
  9. Your fears
    What I now understand about fear is that waiting to be less afraid before you take action is the perfect strategy to doing and becoming nothing. To go forward despite your fears is to embrace the fact that there is something greater ahead of you that is worth feeling uncomfortable for. This is what changed me into the woman that I am today.
  10. Your boundaries
    Take this from a recovering people pleaser who struggled to create a distinction between being considerate towards others and prioritising self-care. In my attempt to be seen as agreeable I neglected my own voice and opinions. I now recognise the value of boundaries when it comes to dealing with others, to do the opposite is just plain self-injustice.

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Tiffany Sanya

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Committed to living intentionally. Writing to make sense of it all. Now on Youtube-https://youtu.be/RnVpNG4KNaA

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