Episode 1: What is Intentional Living?

Intentional Living with Kathy & Michael

Welcome!

This is the first episode of Intentional Living with Kathy & Michael.

In this first episode, Kathy and Michael introduce themselves and define and discuss intentional living: taking control of your day to day life, the direction of your life and living less reactively. Sound good? Join in! [e-mail]

Here are some of the key ideas Kathy and Michael discuss in the first episode

Mastermind – The podcast was born out of a Mastermind in which Kathy and Michael have participated for the past year. A Mastermind is a club, group or gathering, informal or formal, in which the members share weekly milestones and offer one another affirmation and accountability. The Kathy & Michael Mastermind has met in a parking structure, on the lawn outside Equinox Tysons Corner and in various coffeeshops. Anywhere is good! Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Landmark Worldwide – A personal development organization in which Michael has participated. Www.landmarkworldwide.com

G.A.P.S. – Goals, Accomplishments, Proud, Struggle. This is a weekly exercise that Kathy and Michael perform to look back at the past week and forward to the coming week.

How to Communicate Like a Buddhist, by Cynthia Kane – Before you say something, ask yourself three questions: 1. Is it true? 2. Is it kind? 3. Is it necessary?

Mindset, by Carol Dweck – Are you locked into a fixed mindset, believing that what you’ve got and where you are – that’s it? Or do you believe in your capacity to grow and change? Guess which one promotes intentionality.

Airport Exercise – Imagine that you are at an airport, waiting to catch a plane, and you run into an old, good friend you haven’t seen for five years. What will you say to catch that person up to where you are now? Take a piece of paper and identify four areas of your life that you’d most want to cover in your update. What are they? Family? Career? Spirituality? Health? What do you want to be able to say about each area in this brief conversation?

Five-Year Plan – Michael uses this tool for himself and to encourage clients and friends to envision the life they want. Think of writing a narrative that describes what’s important in your life, five years from now. Imagine enough detail to provoke the idea of how you feel about each aspect of your life that you describe. For example, how does your home feel? How do you feel when you go to work?

The Four-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss. Discusses how to make your work life efficient so that you have time for what you love to do.

Backroads Tours – Kathy took a long awaited cycling your with this company in September 2017 in Provence, France. Magnifique! Excellent!

How Emotions are Made, by Lisa Feldman Barrett – Your brain is a black box that can’t do anything other than try to sort out the sensory inputs it receives from your body.

Unbeatable Mind: Forge Resiliency and Mental Toughness to Succeed at an Elite Level, by Mark Divine, former Navy SEAL and founder of SEALfit. Unbeatable Mind shares many techniques for mental resiliency, including Box Breathing, mantras and recapitulating

The Brain: The Story of You, by David Eagleman – every time you visit a memory you change it. Memories are malleable and you can change the way that they affect your present life by adding the wisdom of subsequent experiences to them when you revisit and observe them.

Role Modeling Tool – Michael talks about how his grandfather served as his role model when he had to decide what to do and how to behave when he found himself in Manhattan on September 11, 2001.

HeadSpace – This is a meditation app that Kathy and Michael use. Michael mentions in this episode the idea of reimagining your daily routine as if you’re on vacation (even though you’re not).