"Our intention creates our reality."

- Wayne Dyer

Intention – The Difference Between Creating Your Life and Being Created By It

Most of us have heard it – set your intentions, be clear on your intention, intention is everything. And I believe it with every cell in my body. I've built the last several years of my life around it.

But what nobody really talks about is: what does living with intention actually look like on the daily when you've got emails to answer, kids to drop off, a to-do list that's already longer than your arm, and approximately zero minutes of stillness?

Because life is always lifeing. And in the gap between the spiritual concept and the actual day – that's where most of us lose ourselves.

The difference between a life that feels expansive, purposeful and alive – and one that feels like you're just moving through the motions – is not more willpower, more discipline, or a better morning routine. It's intention. Conscious, deliberate, energetically charged intention. And it's available to you in any moment, not just when you've got a journal in your hand and a candle burning.

The Law of Intention is powerful because it directs energy flow. Energy follows intention. And the moment you understand that – really understand it in your body, not just your head – you stop being someone life happens to, and you start being the one doing the creating.

This is what I want to share – not just what intention is, but how it actually works, and the practical tools I use myself to come back to it, even on the days when life has completely hijacked the plan.

The Day That Just … Happens

We get up, we do our usual routine of getting ready for whatever is happening on that day – going to work, taking the kids to school, day-care, going to the gym, checking emails, social media … and all of a sudden, it's 5pm and the day has just happened.

If you've experienced this like I have, you've most likely looked back and thought "What did I actually achieve today?" Or "What did I do for myself today?"

Not much that happened was done with intention – it was just done. I've rationalised so many times and can attest to attaching a thousand reasons around what was done and why, and I can say for certain that most of those reasons were about someone or something else. Certainly not about me.

We are simply going through the motions – reacting instead of responding, getting distracted, procrastinating, ignoring, people-pleasing – and then we reflect and get down on ourselves for not taking more aligned action, or not doing more, or wasting the day. None of those questions are empowering.

In so much of my studies around consciousness, spirituality, embodiment and self-leadership, one thread keeps showing up – and I can connect it directly to my lived experience: how much of our life are we actually living consciously and intentionally?

For me, up until a few years ago? Not much. And even recently I received a big kick up the arse around how I was approaching my days. I was busy – so busy – but how much of that busyness was truly intentional? How much was for my higher evolution? I was spending so much time being distracted, taken off course, living in the autopilot timeline. And when that goes unchecked, we can completely lose ourselves in the noise of what is happening around us. We stop showing up as the creator of our lives. We become the dreamt and not the dreamer. We are created, and not the creator.

This is certainly a practice, not a destination – and something I remind myself of regularly.

The Reframe: Moving From the Autopilot Timeline to the Conscious Timeline

Firstly, get super aware of how you are moving through each day. Without judgement – this is simply an awareness exercise, a noticing. Place yourself in the position of being the observer. You can write in a journal, or voice note when you become aware of aimlessly moving through a task, your day, any moment where you catch yourself. Or spend a few moments each evening reflecting on your day.

Then, tune into the feelings of those actions. This might be mindlessness, autopilot, stressful rushing, anxiety around what needs to be done, feeling out of control, too much on your plate. Whatever that is for you. The idea is to recognise what this feels like in your body so you can start to become really familiar with it – because familiarity is what helps you interrupt that unfocused timeline energy.

Then let's tune into the feelings of how you want it to be instead. Really feel into this – embody it and anchor into these feelings. You might choose calm, honouring your boundaries, grateful for what you get to do rather than what you have to do, flow, alignment, presence. Whatever feels empowering for you. These are the feelings you want to associate with your highest good. This is you feeling dialled in, focused, and truly being the creator of your reality – living in the conscious timeline.

Finally, while you are getting super in tune with those feelings, get specific about your intention – this might be for a certain project, for the day, or what you are calling in. This is the clarity that is needed to really manifest and supercharge your goal. The feeling and the clarity together – that's the key.

"Awareness is the greatest agent for change"

— Eckhart Tolle

A Simple Hack to Interrupt the Pattern

Because the awareness piece is going to be initially unfamiliar, we need a manual interrupt – and we're going to start small.

Set a reminder on your phone (or several throughout the day) or a post-it note somewhere you'll actually see it. Some sort of trigger that brings you back into the present moment. And that reminder simply asks: "Am I being intentional with my time?"

That's the moment where you tune into those feelings you created – the ones that represent how you want to feel – give yourself a moment to embody them, and step back into your conscious timeline. Bring that clarity around your intention in at that moment and supercharge it. This is the focused timeline – where you are being intentional, dialled in, and moving from a place of creation rather than being created.

Every time you interrupt this pattern, you get the opportunity to pause. And from the moment of pause, you open up the ability to choose. That is powerful. That is how we start to step into the life we want to create, rather than simply going through the motions on the unfocused timeline.

Why Intention Is More Than a Mindset Tool

When we set a strong intention – when we feel it, speak it out loud with conviction – we activate unseen forces that begin to align the circumstances, people and events to help bring that intention into reality. This is not wishful thinking. Having just wishes and desires is not enough – that's why wandering through your day simply daydreaming and hoping for things doesn't yield results.

We need clear, direct purpose behind our thoughts, words, and actions.

I've spoken about the reticular activating system (RAS) before – and when we start to become clear about our intentions, bring focused attention and really feel into them, we begin to see the opportunities and synchronicities around us that we simply didn't see before. That's part of the work of living on the conscious timeline.

Every time you interrupt the autopilot pattern – even for thirty seconds – you create a moment of pause. And from that pause, you get something most people never give themselves: the ability to choose.

That's not a small thing.

You don't need to overhaul your entire life to start living with intention. You just need a moment of awareness, a feeling to anchor into, and a willingness to direct your energy with purpose.

So, the question I want to leave you with isn't "Did I do enough today?"

It's this: "Were you the dreamer – or the dreamt?"

Because you already know which one you're here to be.

"Life is not happening to you. Life is responding to you."

- Rhonda Byrne