Intentional Fortune Cookie
Good morning, Forty Candles Followers! It’s Monday, 7/28/2025. I know, I know! It’s not Friday, your new favorite F word. I totally failed in being prepared last week to have a drop on Friday, so you are getting TWO articles this week! You might ask yourself, what the hell is an intentional fortune cookie. Well, I am about to tell you!
You know the place on the front of this website that reads, “Forget everything you’ve been told for the last 39 years because it’s probably bullshit” line? I will talk a lot about how what we have been told since children is just passed down from others expecting us to behave a certain way, talk a certain way, believe things that were not necessarily true all to keep others more comfortable. I do not believe in continuing that trend which is exactly what led me here writing blogs for all of you. Last week I walked into a co-worker’s office, and I couldn’t get past the fact that she had fortune cookies on her desk. So, I helped myself to one and I couldn’t help but think I needed to share what my fortune read. “A happy heart leads to a happy life.” Let’s sit on that for a moment. What comes to mind for you after reading that? For me it is living a life with intention regardless of someone else’s opinion about it. Being unapologetic in my quest to do what sets my soul on fire! Not feeling like I need to tame my personality because someone else thinks it’s “too much.”
These past few years have been incredibly difficult going through an adult growth spurt. Painfully similar to the growth spurts we experienced as children but times 10! As an adult we have so many responsibilities that are all consuming and do sometimes keep us from being intentional about our days. We live life on auto-pilot at times. We sit doom scrolling on our phones, trying to avoid going to bed because when our feet hit the floor in the morning, we need to do it all over again. Sound familiar? So how is it that with all the things we juggle day to day can we be intentional about where our lives are headed? It is completely up to us if we succeed or fail at that.
For me I had to really start taking true accountability. That started with looking at myself in the mirror every morning and saying, “ok, what is one thing you can do today that is going to get you to where you want to go?” If that meant spending an hour less on my phone, then so be it. Sounds like a small thing, but we all know small things lead to big changes. Also, taking accountability for the things, I haven’t done. How does that sit with you when you read it? Yeah, it was also about as uncomfortable as having gas in the middle of a meeting! What was I blaming others for that I allowed? What is one thing I could be intentional about today and take accountability for that I had consistently blamed someone else for?
These are the questions that we don’t ever really ask ourselves. We spend most days going through the motions of life because it’s what we do. But we don’t ever take the time to reflect on how we can be better and live a life that we don’t feel like we need to run away from. I was in a work training years ago and the speaker said something that will stick with me forever. “Fail forward, fail fast.” WOW! Impactful right? The faster we fail at something the faster we can keep improving to make it better. You don’t need to be perfect at something to start. I have no doubt someone reading this blog is picking it apart. It’s totally fine! I write because I love it and because the things I learned the hard way might be easier for you by reading this. Being intentional does not require you to be a pro straight out of the gate. It requires you to be committed to something that you can’t stop thinking about. So today go out and do one thing that will get you closer to your dream life. Be intentional about yourself! Make yourself a priority. Dream dreams that other people have told you is impossible. Everything is only impossible if you don’t start. Remember that “a happy heart leads to a happy life.” Now let’s get to it!