daily intention checklist

Life is chaotic and especially around the holidays you start to go a little cross-eyed.  While everyday I have all these intentions of doing certain things, sometimes I lose site of them because life happens and keeps you on your toes with unexpected tasks, hard deadlines, etc.  So as of last week I started a new daily intentions checklist to ensure that no matter how crazy my day gets that I can go to bed each night feeling like I've accomplished things that are important to me.

To do lists are an essential part of life.  Whether you write them down on paper, keep it in your daily calendar or have solid memory to store it in your head - you have one and we're constantly adding things to our growing list.  While I don't want to add another list into the mix, sometimes we need a life reminder that our existence isn't just about crossing things off your to do list.  It should be about living life with a purpose to make sure that the most important things that matter are priority. This new daily intention list is a challenge for myself since sometimes I easily push aside the stuff I hate to do and concentrate too much on doing other stuff that is irrelevant to my loved ones.  The daily intention list is short, but you'll find that even with only 4 things - doing each can pose a challenge.  Every morning I've tasked myself with doing the following:

• Do something for yourself: Everyday we get so consumed with doing stuff for other people that we forget to think about #1 - ourselves.  These sacrifices are well worth it, but we can't forget to make ourselves priority.  Take 30 minutes to sit alone and actually eat a good lunch that won't give you heartburn because you tried to scarf it down in 10 minutes, get a mani/pedi or workout.  These are things that we easily put off for other things that we think have priority, but these small self-indulgences are such a nice reward that helps us think clearer.
• Do something for your family:  It seems like everyday we're doing something for our loved ones, but aside from daily chores and tasks that you do for them there are other things that show how much these people mean to us.  Sometimes it's as simple as cooking your husband's favorite meal (even though you're not in love with it) or sitting down to watch Frozen with your kids for the 15th time this week WITHOUT checking your mobile device once.  Seems simple to say, and sometimes a challenge to do, but these are things we do for someone else purely because we know they enjoy it.
• Do something you've been putting off:  My list of things I hate to do is really known as my list of things I avoid doing.  I've been putting these off for as long as I could. I can't tell you how much I absolutely dread the idea of cleaning out my pantry, researching new doctors or anything of that sort, but these are absolute must dos.  Instead of trying to clear them all at once, I'm taking baby steps.  Trying to knock one of these out each day makes it so much more achievable and less dreadful than doing them all at once.
• Do something to help someone else:  There are such things as selfless good deeds and maybe it's the holidays that is making me more sensitive to this, but we should always aspire to help others and do good.  Let someone in your lane while you're in traffic, open the door for a massive group of people that are walking out of the grocery store, buy a stranger their morning coffee or even a simple $.10 bag donation to the local food pantry when you shop at Whole Foods.  These are small gestures that may seem like a given, but when we're in a hurry we become blind and don't think about doing these small random acts of kindness that someone else can benefit from greatly.

Like I said, everyday we have the best intentions to do great things but sometimes they just fall by the wayside.  While these are challenges that may not be easy, they are the small things that will make our days and lives more complete.