I had mentioned the conversation about YOLO at the coffee shop we frequent: Civitas Coffee on Valley View and Rosecrans. In describing the idea as succinctly as I could, I mentioned that with whatever we define as our goal, it would mean living with some intentionality towards the goals. 

The coffee shop owner responded that living with intentionality is a worthwhile thing. But of course intentionality means clearly defining the goals you want to achieve, and what it is you want out of life, so that you can align your actions with achieving those goals. 

But as I was posting the last bit, I was also recognizing that much of my life hasn’t been lived with any specific intentionality. You might be tempted to think that I must have regret about this; that I must feel like I’m wandering aimlessly through life and not accomplishing the things I want, or worse, that I don’t even have anything particular that I want to achieve. And like they say, those that fail to plan, plan to fail. Well, you’d be wrong. To be honest, I don’t feel regret about it at all. I have lived most of my life without much in the way of long-term goals. I tend to just enjoy things as they come. To date, I feel like the Lord has directed my paths and whatever He puts in the way, I just try to enjoy it. So I live a pretty contented life. Maybe that’s some of the source of my contentment: if I were constantly defining my own priorities and then gnashing my teeth when I wasn’t accomplishing them, or they weren’t coming to me on the timeline I was hoping for, the expectations would end up making me more discontent. 

I know this can sound a little like an anti-inspirational quip: aim low and achieve your goals! Or something to that end, and I’m not going to suggest that for anyone else, but at least for myself, this is something I think might actually contribute to my own personal contentment with life. I’d like to say that rather than aimless living, I’m letting the Lord direct me and send me where He wants. But I’m not sure if that’s the case, I often suspect it’s not. But overall, I can say I’m happy and content. 

I also get that this isn’t the entire structure and meaning of “living intentionally”. It more means that in a busy life with lots of things clamoring for our attention, choose the things that are important to you, and cut out things that aren’t. No problem with that at all.