Are You Living With Intention? Part One: The 5 Pillars
Written by: Kurt Schliemann4 min read
Updated: 10/30/26
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My wife picks a word of the year every December. I never really tried it until the year I turned 50. That year, the word found me: Creativity. It came through loud and clear, almost like a command. You need to create.
So I did. I got back to writing. I began journaling more frequently. I started a Medium account. I followed my bliss, as Joseph Campbell would say. I got reacquainted with someone I hadn’t been in a long time.
And wouldn’t you know it, as that year wound down, a new word showed up: Intention.
It came to me in the beginning stages of learning a process I now use in my coaching: Life Planning. I was going through it myself -- receiving my own Living Vision from a master in the craft. And, in an instant, I saw clearly where I wasn’t living intentionally.
I was intentional with my wife and kids. I was also intentional with whoever was in front of me; I enjoy being present with people. But in my work, and in building the lifestyle and career I actually wanted, I was letting life happen. Going through the motions. And the results showed it.
I wasn’t lit up. I wasn’t excelling at work the way I used to. I was cruising, not crushing.
The strange part was that I thought I was doing it right. I called it going with the flow. Staying flexible. Letting life come to me.
But deep down, I had a vision for how I wanted my life to turn out and who I wanted to be. I just wasn’t chasing it. And the longer I was separated from it, the greater the discomfort became.
Finally seeing that vision clearly lit a fire within me. Intention became my word for 2025, and I went after it with ferocity. I read like it was my job. I took four courses on top of working full-time, each one supporting the person I wanted to become. At the end of the year, I launched my business. And I called it Intention.
Living with intention has changed my life. My time, talent, and energy are finally pointed in the same direction. I say no to what doesn’t inspire me and yes to what does. I’m having a lot more fun. I have a lot more energy.
I know what I want my year to look like -- and my months, and my weeks. I start each day the night before, lining up what I need to feel motivated and strong. I get to bed on time. I make room for the people and activities that fill my tank.
So what does living with intention actually look like? For me, it comes down to five pillars:
- VISION
It all starts with a Living Vision. In the Life Planning community I trained in, we call it a Torch. It comes from somewhere deep, and once it’s lit, it gives you energy you didn’t know you had. It’s also a destination, a point on your internal map you can actually see. Jim Collins would call it a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Everything else follows from it.
- PLAN
The plan is the path between here and there. Where do you need to go? What do you need to do? And most important, who do you need to become? When I saw my own Living Vision, I knew I had to stop playing small and become a person who could handle the big goals I had for myself.
- INTEGRITY
Integrity is usually described as doing the right thing even when nobody’s watching. With your Living Vision, there’s only one person watching. So don’t negotiate with yourself. Don’t talk yourself out of the next step. Do what you said you’d do. It won’t always be easy, but keeping the Living Vision front and center gives you a fighting chance.
- ENVIRONMENT
James Clear makes the case in Atomic Habits that our surroundings shape our behavior more than motivation does. So stack the deck in your favor. Make the cues for good habits easy to see, and make the cues for bad ones hard to find. And don’t forget the social environment either. This one’s huge. Find groups that will support your path, full of people who are striving for their own big goals. This is why I created The Intention Council, a small group doing exactly that.
- ALIGNMENT
The last pillar, and probably the biggest. David Bayer, who I learned this from, calls it non-resistance. We all carry subconscious beliefs that pull us off course and convince us we’re less capable than we are. Most of them go completely unnoticed. But if we can unearth them, we can work to change them. And when your beliefs line up with your Living Vision, life gets lighter. And the work feels easier. But if the beliefs aren’t lined up, they will derail all of your best efforts.
Most of us don’t live with real intention. I didn’t for most of my life. I do now, although some days are definitely better than others. I’m not perfect at it, but I’m a lot better than I was. And I’ve found that it’s a far more fun and exciting way to live.
So are you living with intention? How much intention are you bringing to your own life? And how much more might be available to you?
**Next week: 5 habits that can help put you on a more intentional path.
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