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Ever feel like you’re perpetually running behind on #allthethings? You’ve got a heckuva lot of things you ought to do – and perhaps even more that you want to do, but… you don’t humanly have the bandwidth to do it all.

While I can’t guarantee everything you ought to do will go away, I can help you start setting your intentions for how and what you will focus on moving forward – and maximize your personality while doing it!

After all, you’re here because you want to live intentionally with passion and purpose as God’s beloved.

Let’s get practical about what that could look like.

Sound intriguing? Let’s dive in!

Like videos better? Enjoy this video walking through the ideas in this post.

What could setting your intentions look like?

Essentially, you can set your intentions by getting clear on your top priorities and/or choosing a focus word or idea to drive your decision-making.

Here are a couple ways to approach it:

• Narrow down #allthethings to your top priorities – What really matters most to you in the season you’re in? At the end of the day, what will you be MOST glad you focused on?
• Give yourself a focus word or idea to drive your decision-making. This is one of my favorite tools! For instance, in 2020, I focused on being intentional and pursuing peace, 2021 was intentional grace, 2022 was brave, and 2023 was playful and joy. These focus words/phrases guided me in parenting, relationships, business, faith, and much more. (It was awesome!)

Personally, it’s helped me to combine both of these approaches, but if this is new for you – just pick one approach.

And… just a friendly reminder that it’s important to be intentional of with our thoughts. As Paul reminds us:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things

Philippians 4:8

How do you define personality?

According to dictionary.com:

Personality – the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character.

Dictonary.com

Your personality can also be called your nature, disposition, temperament, persona, psyche, or identity.

It’s a modge podge of different qualities that make up YOU.

How does personality affect the way you might set your intentions?

Learning how to leverage your God-gifted design (in this case – your AMAZING personality) in setting your intentions can be so powerful.

For instance, if you have strong sensing preferences, you pay more attention to what you can observe through your five senses. You’re a concrete thinker, so setting your intentions may require being intentional about adding a sensory element to how you focus on them, including how you’d step it out practically. If you lead with intuition, you might be overwhelmed by too many details and do better with a big idea to follow.

Curious about what “sensing” means? Read How your personality influences every moment of your life

Perhaps you post visual reminders around your space about what matters most to you, create a sticker chart or reward jar, or simply create space to enjoy using your hands.

When you learn to embrace what lights you up and get clear on what drags you down, you can be more strategic with how you spend your time and energy.

… and that can help YOU live intentionally with passion and purpose as God’s beloved.

Who doesn’t want that?!

Discover your personality + get practical tips to be more intentional with your time and energy

A key step to becoming more intentional with our lives is by leaning into our God-gifted personality.

I believe that when we lean into our identity as God’s beloved, we can truly thrive. After all, that’s why Coffee Chats and Yoga Mats is all about this BIG idea:

The free Embrace Your Potential Playbook is designed to help you start being more intentional with your time and energy. In the playbook you’ll find:

• What God says about personality. After all, He came up with the idea, so His perspective matters.
• Personality descriptions to help you determine your type. Sometimes we don’t realize what’s unique about our experience until someone describes it to us.
• Type tips for living more intentionally – by leveraging your strengths and being sensitive to your weaknesses.

Note: The type tips are geared toward those who have read the playbook and know their type. Don’t know your type yet? Take a few minutes to grab the playbook and come back to this article!

Just an FYI: Coffee Chats and Yoga Mats uses the Myers Briggs Typology Indicator®(MBTI®) and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter® (KTS®) as its primary personality references. Though these personality tools are not faith-based, they are well-researched with solid data supporting their findings.

Here are some personality tips to help you set your intentions:

By the way, all personality types will likely want to prioritize things like faith, family, health, career, etc. What it looks like for each type may differ, though, and that’s OKAY. We’ll talk about that in a future message.

For the sake of this post, we’ll assume you’re setting your priorities or focus for your current season or year.

Below are suggested questions to help you get clearer on your priorities and focus. As you respond to the questions, you’ll want to assess what things should be de-prioritized, eliminated, or delegated.

iNtuitive Feeling (NF): Idealist

You tend to think a lot about “who you’re becoming,” so when considering your priorities and focus, ask yourself:

“Who am I becoming right now? How would I need to shift my focus to become more of the person I want to be?”

Question for iNtuitive Feeling (NF): Idealist

iNtuitive Thinking (NT): Rational

You tend to think a lot about where you’re headed, so when considering your priorities and focus, ask yourself:

“What direction am I headed in? What would help me most efficiently and effectively reach my goals?”

Question for iNtuitive Thinking (NT): Rational

Sensing Judging (SJ): Guardian

You tend to enjoy reflecting on the past, so when considering your future priorities and focus, ask yourself:

“What am I most proud of from the past several months or year? What would I do differently or keep doing?”

Question for Sensing Judging (SJ): Guardian

Sensing Perceiving (SP): Artisan

You tend to most enjoy being present to the moment, so when considering your future priorities and focus, ask yourself:

“What could make life most awesome? What changes do I need to make and what can I keep doing?”

Question for Sensing Perceiving (SP): Artisan

Articles related to helping you set your intentions

• How you can live with passion and purpose by understanding your personality
• What does God say about personality? (Especially Yours??)
• #1 Method to Become More Intentional with Your Time
• How your personality influences every moment of your life
• 6 Practical Ideas to Focus on Grace
• What Happened When I Chose to Be Intentional + Pursue Peace

What do you do with these personality tips for setting your intentions?

There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to set your intentions for your year or season. That’s okay. In fact, that’s great!

It can help, though, to leverage your personality type – part of your God-gifted design! – in setting intentions that are most true to you and help you live your intentional life.

So what do you need to do next?

Don’t know your type? Let’s embrace it!

1. Grab the Embrace Your Potential Playbook to discover your type and get tips to help you start living more intentionally.

Do you know your type?

1. Determine what you need to get clear on – your top priorities or your focus word or statement.
2. Ask yourself the questions above. Grab your calendar, planner, journal – whatever you use for planning and dreaming – and jot down what comes to mind.
3. Start putting those plans into action. Post about that coming soon!

Beloved, wherever you are on your journey, you can live intentionally with passion and purpose as God’s beloved. You can start today!

cort.k.loui

I’m Cortney, a recovering over-achiever and God’s beloved who loves helping fellow Christian women like you embrace your God-given gifts so you have the confidence to live authentically.

I’m also a full-time mama to two sweet little boys, wife to my best friend, motivational speaker, and part-time Christian life coach. Chai lattes, strong coffee, podcasts, yoga, dance, and fairy tales nourish my soul and add sweetness to life.

Discovering the joy of embracing my God-given gifts and who He created me to be was a game-changer—a journey that brought freedom, unexpected delights, and relief from guilt. Finally, I felt free to be myself and ditch the pressure of being someone I wasn’t.

Incorporating those gifts into my day—from weekly planning to deciding on commitments, nurturing my marriage, and parenting—transformed everything. Now, I can’t imagine life without the perspective of fully embracing who God created me to be. I was missing so much without it!