The Magic of Stepping Into Intentional Living

In Inspire Leadership Academy, I talk a lot about the power of intention in creating magic in our lives. For me, there are four vital steps for intentional living. The first step is awareness: What do I want? The second step is clarity: Where am I now? The third step is intention: What needs to change? And the fourth step is action: What do I need to do? I am overflowing with excitement to share with you how these steps are currently working for me in creating some magic that has me vibrating at a whole new level and is producing some potentially life-enhancing opportunities for you!

It started this spring about the same time we were receiving “hunker down” orders due to Covid-19. I was aware that just about everyone around me was operating from a place of fear, so I knew I had to stay focused on how I was going to choose to be with myself as I went through these extremely unfamiliar and uncomfortable times. This led me straight to the four steps of intentional living.

Step one: My awareness, what did I want? I longed, almost desperately, to connect with people that bring me joy and energy, that challenge me, support me, and celebrate me. I was also craving even more joy and energy professionally.

Step two: My clarity, where was I? I realized that many of my relationships brought me joy by allowing me to challenge and support others, but I found that I lacked support and celebration for myself. It was also blatantly clear that I was comfortable in the work I was doing but I was ready for new energy and new creativity. I felt like I was ready to birth something new.

Step three: My intention, what needed to change? I needed to better nurture the relationships in my life where I found the most joy, energy, support and celebration. I needed to “get pregnant” with the something new I wanted to birth.

Step four: My action, what did I do? I reached out more intentionally to the people in my life that go above and beyond to support and celebrate me. I expressed my desire to create more connection, more joy, more energy, more creativity.

And just like that, the magic happened!

There is a woman in my life whom I consider my life coach and life raft. Her name is Heidi Iverson Neuss and we met over four decades ago, in a kindergarten classroom, where I was having trouble leaving the safety and security of my mom’s arms and she, in typical life coach/life raft fashion, walked straight up to me and with one simple question assured me that I could handle kindergarten and anything and everything else that followed. The questions was, “Do you want to be my friend?” Since that fate-filled day, Heidi and I have been fiercely challenging, supporting and celebrating one another.

Almost the very moment that I got clear on my four steps, Heidi’s son, Jonah Neuss, showed up ready to help me deliver the something new I was ready to birth. Jonah is the man responsible for our beautiful, refined website and polished logo and just the mention of Jonah’s name causes joy and energy to pulse through my veins. In the handful of months Jonah and I have been working together, he has been instrumental in solidifying my vision for the Inspire Membership Club and a few weeks ago, he had a suggestion that felt like pure sunshine. He suggested a Zoom meeting with him, Heidi and me.

It was during this Zoom meeting that one of the life-enhancing opportunities I promised earlier was birthed. I am thrilled to inform you that Heidi, my life coach for over four decades, offered to share her wisdom and insight with all of us on a regular basis here on our blog!

I am elated to share with you my intention to keep meeting and creating magic with Jonah and Heidi and all three of our intention to share the magic with you. As we anxiously await Heidi’s upcoming posts, I challenge you to practice the four steps of intentional living. I certainly will be while I revel in the opportunity I created, promoted and allowed to connect and create magic with people that bring me joy and energy, that challenge me, support me, and celebrate me both personally and now professionally too.

With love, Tracy