What It Really Means to Live With Intention

What It Really Means to Live With Intention

People talk about “living with intention” as if it’s a trend, a routine, or a well-curated lifestyle.
But intention is not aesthetics.
It’s not productivity.
It’s not a perfectly arranged life.

For me, intention is much simpler.
It’s living without pretending.
It’s aligning your values with your actions.
It’s choosing truth over performance, even when truth is not convenient, not flattering, not easy.

Intention is the quiet courage to be who you are, without bending yourself into shapes that don’t belong to you.

When I realised I wasn’t living with intention

There was a moment in my life when I became aware that I was holding on to relationships that were entirely one-sided.
I was giving, supporting, showing up, but the connection didn’t go both ways.

Instead of being myself, I adapted.
I softened my edges.
I walked on eggshells.
I avoided expressing my truth because I knew the weight of misunderstanding would fall on me.

It took time to understand that this wasn’t kindness, it was disconnection.
Not from others…
but from myself.

Around the same period, I was struggling to understand my purpose, my dharma.
What am I here to do?
What is the meaning of my presence in this world?

The realization came slowly, like a sunrise.
My purpose wasn’t a title, a status, or a grand role.
It was something I was already doing: helping others, guiding them, being the stable presence they needed.

Only when I accepted this did intention begin to form inside me , quietly, naturally, truthfully.

What changed when I began living intentionally

Two words:
Inner peace.

Not the absence of problems.
Not the removal of challenges.

But a deep, realignment with myself , with the person I actually am.

When your actions match your core values, life stops feeling like a performance.
You no longer question every step.
You no longer carry contradictions inside your chest.
You no longer bend yourself for approval that should have never been required.

Inner peace comes when nothing inside you argues with itself anymore.

The hardest part: letting go of walking on eggshells

Living with intention requires honesty, but honesty is misunderstood by many.

People don’t hear what you say.
They hear what they think you mean.

I speak with sincerity, gently and directly.
But because so many people live surrounded by pretension, manipulation, and double meanings, they assume I communicate the same way.

They get offended by my authenticity.
They misinterpret my intention.
They take my honesty as aggression, my clarity as confrontation, my sincerity as judgment.

This is the hardest part of intentional living:
remaining genuine in a world that fears genuineness.
But choosing to stay true to yourself is the only path that doesn’t betray your own spirit.

When I feel most aligned

I feel most intentional when I help others, when I guide with empathy, when I act honestly, especially in difficult situations.

Intention lives in the moments when you respond with integrity, not impulse.
It lives in the choices no one sees.
It lives in the kindness you choose even when no one deserves or expects it.
It lives in the quiet places where your values and actions finally meet.

What people misunderstand about intentional living

People think intention is dramatic.
A reinvention.
A transformation.
A new identity.

But it’s not.
Most people are so drowned in pretension that they don’t recognize what genuine intention looks like:

• honesty without hardness

• kindness without agenda

• clarity without ego

• boundaries without anger

• purpose without performance

Pure intention is not loud.
It’s consistent.
It’s simple.
It’s genuine.

If my intention had a voice…

It would say:

Be kind.
Be yourself.
Do the right thing.

Not for approval.
Not for recognition.
But because peace comes from alignment, not applause.

Living with intention is not about perfect choices.
It’s about honest ones.
It’s about being real in a world that constantly asks you to pretend.

And if you stay true to that, you will find what I found:
a quiet, steady inner peace that doesn’t depend on anyone else.

Spyridon
Growing with intention, one reflection at a time.