Being Intentional

When I first started writing these lists my intent was to stave off my depression. I figured it would be hard to be depressed if I started writing things I was grateful for every morning. That was over a decade ago and I’m still writing. Initially, I’d write these on my bathroom mirror but it’s since evolved into writing them as a document.

For about three, maybe four years, I’d thought about sharing my lists with the hopes that if they’d helped me they may help someone else. But I chose not to share them and didn’t post any of the lists. I posted a few, less than a dozen, on my website under my birth name and got lots of positive feedback. I got a little spam, but mostly comments about the topic I’d written about that day. Again, those lists were meant as a means for me to fight my depression, not to help others on their journey.

It’s been several months, maybe a year now, instead of ending my lists with “Be Great. Be Grateful” that I sign off with “Abe, Be Greater!!!” The reason I sign the lists is it’s kinda like a letter. Abe in my moniker or pen name. It’s something I’ve adopted and began using about a year ago, but with little intent. Today, the moniker is something I’m more focused on and the reason is simple. I almost died from an accident in February. I’m thinking now that since I’ve been given a new chance at this thing called life, I may as well abandon the old me and start fresh with a name more aligned with the philosophy I’ve adopted and embraced.

The reason I wrote all of that is to explain how long things take without intent. Defined as “intent or purpose” or “resolved or determined to do something” intent comes directly from the Latin word “intentus” or “a stretching out.” Part of my experience is not writing with intent or purpose. It’s a metaphor for life as well. When we aren’t intentional, life happens to us. When we live with intent, life happens for us.

It took me a decade to start writing these lists for someone else. That’s not the best for the most, that’s what can I get out of this. My Creator, in my belief, didn’t bring me into existence to do what’s best for myself, but rather to serve me fellows. Had I started writing these lists with the thought of helping others, I may have done so more consistently. I may have impacted others in profound and lasting ways. I may have been able to serve a broader audience more effectively, but that’s not what happened. I may have grown more as a man, as a writer, as a speaker, as His servant. Not to sound as if I’m unappreciative, because I’m profoundly thankful for how I’ve benefited, but my lack of intent didn’t do the best for the most.

Being intentional requires focus. Being intentional requires discipline. Being intentional requires commitment. Being intentional requires us to make decisions. At first, at least in my case, it appears as if these things limit my options and choices, and that’s true, but it’s not a negative thing. When I cut off or decide to do a certain thing, other options fall away. When I decide to be intentional, my power grows. Power means the ability to do something or act in a particular way.

Imagine this: You perform one thing fo

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