Life is made of moments. Moments where you can choose how you want to act. Because of this, there are bound to be times when you are more authentic than others. Authenticity isn’t a place you arrive at and stay. It ebbs and flows depending on how much you pay attention and act intentionally.

In this series, we have covered the first four steps to leading your life and team with intention. They are:

  1. Developing your superpower to create responses, ie. being response-able
  2. Choosing how to respond ahead of time
  3. Identifying triggers that set you back
  4. Implementing whitespace in your day to study yourself and this practice.

Step number 5, is to practice, practice, practice. And then study where you feel off. I like to compare this to football players who watch film all week to get ready for a game. They are breaking down what happened; what worked and what didn’t and how they can do better next time.

In business, this is called the PDSA cycle; plan, do, study, act. You need to apply this same theory to yourself and how you show up every single day.

Leading your life and others with intention, based on your values and how you want to show up, will allow you to cut out hours of wasted energy and drama. But more importantly, it gives you the freedom to show up as yourself, authentically.

The authentic self is soul made visible.

Sarah Ban Breathnach

There is a reason that the great philosophers and Shakespeare wrote things like “To thine own self be true”. It is because when we act in a way that isn’t aligned with our souls, it creates more than wasted Busyness in our lives. It also creates what is termed as cognitive dissonance in psychology – mental discomfort about something we are doing.

When your thoughts, beliefs and actions are in alignment, you will not suffer from cognitive dissonance. On the contrary, you will feel a sense of balance and ease and satisfaction, and yes, even happiness.

So keep setting your intention. Stay mindful in the present moment to determine how you want to act. Build up your awareness muscle by practicing and then keep adjusting your behaviors, thoughts and actions to start living in true alignment.

From this day forward, give yourself permission to live authentically and soon your busyness will be banished.

This is the fifth in a five-part series about leading your life, and your team, with intention. To check out more like this, get my new book Conquering Busyness that contains a link to a FREE workbook about learning how to be an effective leader.