Adam Kirk Smith

- A. Smith Blog - Leadership in Life

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To Be Successful You Must Be Intentional

The world’s most successful people are also some of the most intentional people. How do I know this to be true? Because life is a fight, and no one wins a fight by happenstance. Successful people realize that the only way they will ever accomplish their dreams is not by accident or by luck, but by putting work into the right things over a reasonable span of time. In other words, don’t expect easy if you want to become successful.

This intentionality I speak of is what makes focus and time management work, and at the root of this idea is doing what you say you’re going to do. When you say you’re going to show up, show up. And if you don’t show up, find something that you will show up for.

When you say you're going to show up, show up. Click To Tweet

I’ll leave you with a quote by politician, Mark Udall. He said, “You don’t climb mountains without a team, you don’t climb mountains without being fit, you don’t climb mountains without being prepared and you don’t climb mountains without balancing the risks and rewards. And you never climb a mountain on accident – it has to be intentional.”

Living life with intention is much like climbing a mountain — you need to show up, you need to fight for results, and you need to keep pressing forward. Success will always demand this of you. 

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3 Things to Help You Be More Intentional in Your Relationships – Jackie Bledsoe

3 Things to Help You Be More Intentional in Your Relationships Living in the Social Media Age - Jackie Bledsoe

 

I have a lot of relationships and friends. I have almost 5,000 relationships on Facebook, over 1,800 on Twitter, over 1,000 on Instagram and Pinterest, and over 1,000 combined on G+ and LinkedIn. But, there are very few people that I interact with on a direct or one-on-one level consistently. It’s the strange paradox we find our relationships in while in the midst of this social media age.

Most of us understand that relationships need nurturing. If you are in a relationship and you never see each other or communicate with each other, is there really anything there? I know as a married man, if my wife and I don’t communicate or spend time together, then that means things aren’t going too well.

A deeper connection

Sometimes it’s scary to be connected with so many people, to have so many relationships, but the interactions are minimal or superficial at best (a RT here, a LIKE there, etc.). To really have meaningful relationships we must go deeper, and going deeper doesn’t happen by accident. We have to be intentional.

I must admit, I struggle with it in a major way. I’m working on it, and I am putting some things in place to help me do so. Here are 3 ways I plan to be more intentional in my relationships, that can help you do the same.

  1. Create a list. Who is most important in your life? Of course your spouse/kids and immediate family, but who else? Write their names all down (including your spouse and kids). Use paper, your smartphone, Evernote, your computer, or even a voice recorder. Have a list of people that are very important to you, and vice versa, and that you want to go deeper with.
  2. Touch them regularly. Writing the names down doesn’t do any good if you don’t take some action. You want to interact with them on a regular basis, and if possible, interact with them one-on-one. The interaction doesn’t always have to be in person. It can be a phone call, an email, a card in the mail. Anything that allows you to “touch” them.
  3. Create a system to keep you on track. We all have good intentions, but we don’t always follow through on them. Having a simple system or tool to keep you on track is helpful. You may use a task management system, a calendar, or an app to remind you. Find something that will help you when life gets crazy and you feel like you are all over the place, because that will happen. I recently discovered the Intentional app that does just that. It’s a free app available for iPhones and Android phones that I’ll be trying out.

As we continue to live and have relationships where everybody is connected (via social), but nobody is connected (in real life), make sure you go deeper in your relationships. Don’t let them stay surface or social media level. Go beyond that to experience richer and more fulfilling relationships.

What other ways can you be more intentional in your relationships? Please share in the comment section below.

 

 

photo credit: JefferyTurner via photopin cc

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Are You In A Rut?

Creative Commons Photo Credit by nyllo

If you answered “yes” to being in a rut, then you probably feel like life was better at some point in the past. I know when I feel like things are bad, I have something to compare it to, whether it be my own life or others. Oh by the way, comparing your life to others never works out well.

The first step to getting out of it is identifying the things that have made you feel like there is no way out of the hole that you are in. Here are just a few things to get your mind headed in the right direction…

[Read more…] about Are You In A Rut?