The School of Intentional Living: A Real-World Approach to Living Life On Your Terms is a practical and eye-opening book about how to break free from conventional wisdom and live on your own terms.
Written by founder of The Intentional Living Academy, Sean Rosensteel, this book draws on fundamental lessons from school to provide readers with an actionable and empowering way to love the life they truly deserve.
Covering the importance of finding your purpose, how to organize your priorities and quit wasting time on distractions, and the essential differences between proactive and reactive living, this groundbreaking book offers powerful methods for escaping the beaten track and creating your ideal life.
The School of Intentional Living is a must-read for anyone feeling stuck, unfulfilled, or searching for a change.
The School of Intentional Living: A Real-World Approach to Living Life On Your Terms is a practical and eye-opening book about how to break free from conventional wisdom and live on your own terms.
Written by founder of The Intentional Living Academy, Sean Rosensteel, this book draws on fundamental lessons from school to provide readers with an actionable and empowering way to love the life they truly deserve.
Covering the importance of finding your purpose, how to organize your priorities and quit wasting time on distractions, and the essential differences between proactive and reactive living, this groundbreaking book offers powerful methods for escaping the beaten track and creating your ideal life.
The School of Intentional Living is a must-read for anyone feeling stuck, unfulfilled, or searching for a change.
âWhat if my whole life has been wrong?â - Ivan Ilych
These words, spoken in the final moments by Ivan himself in Leo Tolstoyâs famous novel The Death of Ivan Ilych, have haunted me for many years.Â
I'll bet these words haunt you a little, too.Â
If so, Iâm going to make a bold assumption: you've trusted conventional wisdom to guide certain aspects of your life.Â
Iâll bet you went to school in the hope it would provide you with everything you needed to be âsuccessfulâ in the real world. You earned a high school or college degree so you could land a decent job or start a business. With some steady income, you bought a home. Maybe you settled down and started a family of your own. For as long as you can remember, youâve always believed that working hard for several decades would earn you the right to one day enjoy a comfortable retirement. Â
The problem with blindly following conventional wisdom is one day may never come.Â
After some time, many of us wake up and take a hard look in the mirror. We begin to realize weâre not where we want to be. We wish we were further along. We thought weâd have better health, more wealth and deeper relationships at this stage in our lives. Thereâs this nagging feeling that something is missing.
Weâve been drifting for so many years, weâre now feeling a bit lost. Going through the motions no longer satisfies us. With a subtle sense of uncertainty, we come to the realization that thereâs more to life than weâve previously noted.Â
We have this longing to live more intentionally. We have this desire to make more of a difference in the lives of those we lead, love and serve. The problem, of course, is that the hourglass of life is now working against us. Weâre afraid that if we donât make a change soon, we may never reach our true potential as human and spiritual beings.Â
Some people call this a âquarterâ or âmid-lifeâ crisis. Carl Jung, the great Swiss psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology, referred to this as the âafternoonâ of our lives.1 In his book The Shift, Wayne Dyer describes this as a time in our lives when we move from a place of ambition to a place of meaning. Â
In the meantime, weâve picked up an enormous amount of responsibility along the way. Some of us have soul-crushing jobs or businesses that demand our around-the-clock attention. Expenses are steadily increasing, the mortgage is due and there are numerous mouths to feed. Our loved ones arenât getting any younger, and they will soon, if not already, require extra care.Â
Every day weâre being pulled in all sorts of directions. It feels like everything and everyone demands our attention. Weâre spread thin and stress levels are shooting through the roof. Our lives become a never-ending state of imbalance, spiraling out of control. Despite our good intentions to live more intentionally, weâre not sure where weâll find the time in our busy schedules to make that happen.Â
So how, then, do we approach this subject of intentional living?Â
No one ever taught us this. No one ever taught us how to live our lives based on our own unique definitions of success. We didnât learn it from our parents, our society or our culture. Religious institutions donât teach this, and the formal education system doesnât either.Â
While all of these influential sources have certainly contributed in meaningful ways, weâre still left wondering how to start living intentionally based on all the unique circumstances with which we now find ourselves surrounded.Â
A Real-World Approach
In the following pages, youâll find a real-world approach that helps you break free from conventional wisdom and pursue your own definition of success. Itâs a practical approach that will meet you where you are and support you based on your unique circumstances. It will help you navigate this incredibly fun and rewarding journey into intentional living. No matter where youâre looking to go, this book will help you get there, even if you donât know where there is just yet.
Best of all, this isnât proprietary. In fact, Iâll bet youâre already familiar with every single element within this simple approach.Â
Before going into further detail, Iâm going to ask you to use your imagination for a moment.
Imagine waking up one day in the not-so-distant future. You look in the mirror, and you have this internal knowing that youâre on the right path.Â
This new version of you has discovered what truly matters most. Youâve objectively assessed your entire life, and for once, youâre finally organized around your highest priorities.Â
Youâve made the shift from living reactively to living proactively. Youâre more effective than ever before with your time, and youâre making the most of each day. Â
The people you love, lead and serve begin to notice your transformation.Â
Youâre no longer distracted with the things that used to steal your attention away from the present. Instead, youâre laser-focused.Â
Youâve envisioned a compelling future for your life by defining clear and meaningful goals. With this new sense of clarity, procrastination is a thing of the past. Youâre experiencing significant progress in every area of your life, and youâre finally advancing in the direction of your dreams.Â
Youâre taking time out of your busy schedule to course-correct along the way. Youâre succeeding faster than ever before, and youâve taken your learning and growth to an entirely new level.
This might seem like a far-fetched fantasy, but Iâm here to tell you itâs not.
The title of this book, together with its eye-catching cover, encouraged me to pick it up in the first place! The notion of being more intentional with the choices we make in life has been on my mind for a while, and I was curious to hear the author's take on this topic too.
Through proven and tested methodologies, Sean claims that with clear intention and reasonable effort, it's possible to actively get back on track and avoid the "someday" mindset we tend to get trapped into.
He provides a clear framework to help figure out life priorities, and couples it with an implementation process to ensure their achievement.
The author goes on to give the reader permission to apply the methods in a way that accommodates their unique circumstances. This is quite a fresh approach in that it doesn't demand the reader to start their "personal development" journey from scratch solely based on what's suggested in this book.
I also very much enjoyed the authentic and relatable voice that Sean has maintained throughout the book, together with the step-by-step assignments after each chapter to further enable the actionability of the ideas.
In summary, this book is a practical reminder to help focus on what matters most, say no to what's less important, and ensure there's alignment between our goals and daily actions.
Despite our good intentions to live more intentionally, weâre not sure where weâll find the time in our busy schedules to make that happen.
I highly recommend it to those with an ever-growing list of tasks who want to shift from living reactively to living proactively.