Does this sound like another overblown, good-on-paper New Year’s Resolution? To live intentionally. Maybe. When we ran it by a friend, he said, “As opposed to living accidentally.” Well, yeah. This wasn’t meant to be a resolution. Do those even work? More of a mantra for the New Year. Just one simple concept to focus on rather than a bunch of bullets on a page. Like this: Start by waking up with good intentions. Then move through your day putting them into action. Someone cuts you off in traffic? Make a decision not to let it chap your hide and raise your blood pressure. Maybe her blow dryer blew a fuse this morning. Maybe she didn’t have time for coffee. Maybe you have bigger and better things to think about. Move forward with your day with the best of intentions. Decide you’re going to stop saying you’re too busy to do the things you really want to do. Then do one of them. Just do it. You’ll figure out what needs to get cut from your day to make it happen, and it probably isn’t going to be eating, sleeping or flossing. (And if you’re flossing every night, you should already feel pretty good about yourself.) To us, living intentionally means you’re not hiding. Hiding behind excuses or fears. You’re doing something because you’re an adult and you’ve decided you’re going to take responsibility for your choices. And if you need someone to call your bluff, check in with Seth.You won’t be sorry. This doesn’t mean you out-engineer all of your bad habits. It just means you own up to your choices. That you’re deliberate. Give up the extra 20 minutes you normally use to stop for coffee by hitting snooze two times? Done. Enjoy it. Then don’t complain about having no time for coffee. Maybe you decide to do that tomorrow. Or two days a week. Don’t dabble in guilt. Or excuses. Remember all the news stories that came out about mindless eating after Cornell professor and economist, Brian Wansink’s book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think hit the shelves? The gist is that we eat a lot more when we don’t pay attention. There’s a lot of psychology behind “…how much, what and why we’re eating.” Like when we’re watching TV (chips) or at the movie theater (popcorn). So be intentional. Grab a bowl, fill it with your favorite snack and enjoy. When it’s gone, it’s gone. And buy the small popcorn. Make the decision to tell people you’re grateful, you appreciate them, that they did a good job or you like their outfit. Be genuine. See what happens. We’ve already found ourselves making fewer excuses and being more positive. And that was our intention all along. What’s yours?