Intentional living: Shifting from daydream mode to creator mode

I believed that life just happened to us, that we are all a product of destiny, and that things just happen to us when the timing is right. I believed I would meet my soulmate when God wished it to be. Perhaps I would become successful with a bit of luck and destiny.

After getting a huge reality check, I realized that that is not how life works. It felt like things just happened to me and I just reacted to things happening in my life. 

I’ve always been a dreamer, a daydreamer. I imagined fantasies of me becoming successful and meeting my soulmate. I fantasized about the big manifestations that I wanted in life and well, that was it.

Image created by Canav’s AI image generator

That’s where I stopped and carried on with the life destined for me. I carried on being unsatisfied, miserable, and a bit bitter inside. I felt like some people had easier lives than others. My life felt harder. Anytime something “bad” or “negative” happened to me, I cried. I blamed God and asked, “Why me?”

After a big spiritual awakening, I realized I was a victim of my reality. Up until that moment, I lived my life on autopilot. I lived a life that others had created for me while living my dream life in my daydreams and fantasies.

Until I realized that my dream life wouldn’t happen in my head. When I became more grounded in reality and understood how it actually works, I realized that everyone living their dream life created it. They didn’t just get “lucky.”

I noticed that all the successful people I admired struggled and fought to create their dream life and current reality. They didn’t just get “lucky.”

Image created by Canav’s AI image generator

When I first came across the law of attraction and manifestation, I was mesmerized. I thought that if I just thought about something, it would magically appear and that God would somehow make it happen.

Though I wasn’t completely wrong about thoughts becoming reality, I did get into this trap of wishful thinking where I believed that just thinking about stuff will make them come true. I just want to clarify that, that is NOT manifestation at all. That is simply wishful thinking.

Daydream Mode Vs Creator Mode

Recently, I invented the concept of daydream mode vs creator mode. As I mentioned, I daydream a lot even to this day. However, I haven’t manifested anything that I just daydreamed about. But I have manifested things that I intentionally thought about and took action on.

For months, I had been asking myself what living intentionally really means and I’ve finally concluded that intentional living is all about being in creator mode or create your reality mode. It is all about consciously figuring out, choosing, and taking action on what you want.

However, to shift from daydream mode to creator mode, you must first realize that you are the creator of your life. You have the choice to design the life you want to live. You are not a victim and you don’t have to live based on what society has set up for you. You can change those patterns, break them, and design a life you want to live.

Once you have come to this realization, you can now start living intentionally.

Image created by Canav’s AI image generator 

How I Implemented Intentional Living

One of my desires had always been to choose a career that I loved. For me, work needed to be play. When I was in university, I was stressed and anxious about my career choices. The anxiety was quite high and I felt enough was enough. I needed help.

I went to a career counsellor and started talking about my career choices. That one decision and choice to seek help transformed my life. The conversations I had with her were insightful and transformative. 

I took a 180-degree turn on my career choices because I realized what I’m truly passionate about and started taking action on it. I explored those career paths to see whether it would work for me. After, I switched to a psychology major, conducted an independent research project, and participated in a job shadow program.

Even today, I continue to explore my interests in being a writer and a coach.

Being intentional about my career choices provided me the courage to explore various paths in a world that values knowing what you want to do with your life. My commitment to exploring and finding what I truly want and love allowed me to not settle for the average career path and follow the unconventional path.

The result? I’m much happier and feel more fulfilled.

I’ve also been intentional when it comes to my physical and mental health. Before COVID, I never took care of my physical or mental health. But being at home made me understand the importance of both these things.

When I journaled or meditated, I felt a sense of clarity and that felt good. I now had real reasons and a clear why for wanting to work out, journal or meditate. They made me feel good and improved my energy levels. If you want to learn how to journal, check out this post.

Image created by Canav’s AI image generator 

That’s when I started to consider making these habits a routine and being more consistent with them.

I remember at times, I would do meditation just for the sake of doing it. But, when I was determined to quiet my mind and just be, my mind was more clear. I was in a better meditative state than when I wasn’t intentional about it.

Even today, I’m still practicing being intentional with what I want to create. For example, I’m a blogger so writing is a huge component of my job. I am currently trying to be intentional about making writing a daily habit.

What Intentional Living Really Means

Whether you want to live intentionally or be intentional about one particular thing, understanding what intention is, helps. Do you see the patterns in all these examples? Ultimately, intention involves three components.

1. Focused clarity and awareness
2. Conscious choices
3. Determination and commitment

Focused clarity means to have crystal clear clarity in terms of what you want to create and why you want to create it. For example, I knew I wanted to improve my mental and physical health so I could improve my energy levels.

Being intentional is also about making conscious choices and decisions. When you have clarity and a vision of what you want, it’s important to take action and make choices that are in alignment with that clarity. It means being aware of how you show up to meditate or write or create whatever it is that you want to create.

Finally, being intentional is also about having a certain level of determination about what you want. You may hold the intention of writing a book and have clarity on it but unless you’re truly determined and committed to that action, you won’t do it. Therefore, intentional living also involves determination or commitment to that which you want to create.

Intentions help us to direct our energies to what we want to create and the outcome we want to create. This is why intention setting is often the first component when manifesting anything you desire.

If you want to start practicing intention setting, check out this meditation.

Thus, being intentional can help you shift out of your daydreams and into creating the life that you crave!

What are your intentions?