5 Simple Questions to Live with More Intention and Purpose Every Day

When you die, all your memories, stories and your impact on this world is summed up into one line between when you're born and when you died.

It's a sobering thought.

I read about this recently and it hit me hard. It made me pause and reflect on how I'm spending my time.

Through that reflection I decided on two things I wanted in my life to make sure that dash was time well spent:

1. Live with intention

Time is precious.

I don't want to waste it. Death is inevitable and unpredictable. We don't know how much time we have to use.

So I want to live with more presence and intent.

2. Write your story:

My mum died at a young age.

So I've missed it out on lot since they died, like their guidance and their stories.

Since becoming a dad, I don't want my daughter to go through the same thing. So I'm trying to document my mistakes, my lessons and my memorable stories.

My hope is that one day, my experiences can help her in her life and my stories can help keep the memories alive.

So when I came across Michael Thompson's noticing questions in his recent newsletter, it was the perfect solution to reconcile the 2 things I want in my life.

Michael recommends asking the following 5 questions to help you notice more in your days:

Each question, by itself, is powerful as a journal prompt but combining them into a daily exercise has a powerful ripple effect on your life.

I think there's 3 benefits to this daily exercise:

1. Creates space for reflection and growth.

Awareness is the first step to progress.

Reflecting on what you've learnt and what you can improve creates that awareness. Once you're aware, you know where you need to focus.

Once you focus in the right places, you start to take steps in the right direction and grow where you want to go.

2. Creates more intention in your life.

These questions force you to face the reality of what you're doing with your time.

They increase your sense of presence. With that comes more intention on how you spend your time. Instead of just lazing around on the sofa, you put effort into doing more valuable things with your time.

How you spend each minute becomes a conscious choice to spend it with purpose.

3. Makes you grateful

When you see more, you appreciate more.

Each question helps open your eyes so you see your life with more clarity. You start to see more good in the world. Both the good you have done and the good that has been done for you.

Life becomes beautiful and you become grateful for all the beauty in it.

I really think we all can benefit from asking these questions in our life.

Just start small. Answer one question per day and see how it changes your perspective on life.

Because at the end of the day, it's not about how much years are in your life. It's about how much life is in your years.