Latest / In The Driver's Seat / What Does It Mean to Live With Intention?
Transcript
- Lisa French: In 2015, I was having my employee evaluation, my annual evaluation with my boss. We're sitting in his office and after he was done with my evaluation, he looked at me and said, now that your daughter has graduated, what does Lisa want? My daughter was the youngest, he knew now I was an empty nester. And I just felt very seen in that moment, because he had identified something in me that I hadn't. He knew that I was the type of person that required continued growth. He was asking me something that I wasn't even asking myself at that point. It was just a moment that was basically a call for me to become intentional with my life, to decide intention did I want as far as a career. I am Lisa French, an former race car driver and turned empowerment coach. podcast is about exploring mindset, belief, and creating a life that you truly love. My goal is you to find little piece of yourself in my stories and lessons, inspiring you to step into own power. Whether you're here to learn, reflect, or simply feel a little less alone in this world, you are in the right place. I'm so happy ⁓ have you here as we journey toward a life filled with clarity, purpose, and possibility. What does it mean to live with intention? I'm to give you some various stages of how, and examples of how this might show up in your life. Category, one of the categories is called drifting. Imagine it being like a boat out in ocean or a big body of water where there's no engine running, if it's sailboat, no sails up. whatever, and so the boat has no control over where it's going. It's just drifting along, floating wherever the current takes it. In racing, the drifting would be like going through the corners and there's no traction for forward motion. It's just kind of drifting sideways. For me, some examples of where this has showed up in life, definitely after my mom passed away, I was much at a loss. I didn't know how to navigate the grief. I knew that, I was not even remotely emotionally myself. was being in a way, just, mean, going out with my friends and trying to act like everything was okay, guess, is the better way to say it. And when I'd just have been home alone, you know, and not having to be social or interact with people. Another time would have been the winter before I moved to Florida. I was living in in the winter of 2018. I just in this weird funk. I was always a lot of time on the couch ⁓ watching TV, was definitely not me at all. And when friends would reach out wanting to hang out, do something, I just didn't ever feel like it. But I didn't know really what... There was nothing particularly wrong. just didn't... I couldn't identify really why I was feeling that way. Then with my job, I come to a point where everything just kind of fell on repeat. We have position I in, went to a lot of meetings that were on monthly. just every month the same meetings are happening over and over and then throw in all your other random meetings. There was no upward movement in the same type of position that I was in as the executive assistant. I mean, there was only so much you could do to change the job and have it be different at all or expansive. So overall, drifting is just what ⁓ when life isn't lighting you on the inside and you're just going through the motions and staying busy. Another category called deciding. And this part, now you realize that you do want something better for your life or just a particular area of your life and you start making choices, reaching for the best feeling. For me, when my boss asked me now, what does want and I felt very seen but I also didn't have an answer. So that tripped the wire kind of for me to start looking at that and you know, if I did leave this position, job, ⁓ what are my and what feels good? You know, is it going to be an executive assistant at an organization in Des Moines? And like, meh. I didn't feel that. Is it finding maybe a job back in my hometown and the place where I always feel grounded when I return there? It was just kind of sorting those things out, thinking of all the possibilities I had. And does this feel good? this choice feel good? Then after my mom passed away, I started realizing all the things that I wasn't doing that I probably would enjoy doing because ever since I was racing as a child and then went into racing as an adult, but then past that, I was still going to the track all the time, even though I was no longer a driver. basically racing... go into the track. you're going to the race track, you're going from the most part, depending on where you live, you're going April through September. So every Saturday night, that's what I was doing. is, ⁓ when you live in Iowa and your window of like really good weather is pretty limited. started thinking, I'm ⁓ really a lot of time that I could be doing other things. So I started going Iowa Cubs games, which I grew up the Chicago Cubs with my mom on TV and fun things like little concerts or festivals and that sort of thing and doing little trips with my kids or ⁓ fun things with them. Then for the whole deal with Florida, it was definitely a lot of small decisions saying yes to this, oh, this feels good. It just kept evolving. First I thought, oh, it's a writing retreat and this is what I want to do. This is what I want to focus on. And then, well, obviously that means you just got to quit your job but you also need to still have work to help pay the bills. writing retreat at first, thought, I'll go to Florida, because we had been to Florida several times racing, and always it as a child. I thought, well, go there. But then I thought, well, don't you go somewhere you've never been? So I've never been to the Panhandle of Florida. And if I'm going to start that means I'm going to meet people and make it immersed in the community. I of realized eventually that this was going to be a move, not, you're going on a writing retreat and then sorting out what you're doing after that. So that would over a span of about a month in 2018. It started around the beginning of March. Then by the 31st, the end of month, I was heading to Tulsa to... spend the weekend with my kids and celebrate my daughter's 21st birthday I gave them the news that I was moving to Florida. An intention isn't just a wish and hoping it comes true. It's the to identify. what truly matters to you and then aligning with that through your actions and your thoughts. So the last category I wanna go over is what I call the driver's seat. This is where you are a full active participant in where you are going in life. You're making decisions and taking action, but most importantly, you are excited about the life and the direction that you're going. In a race car, are not passive whatsoever. can at least we hope we're not passive. In car, there are micro decisions happening. You're like you're the track to see where other cars are. If you need to them or whatever and what's the fast line around the track. You're feeling the car and how's it handling listening to. the noise of the engine and that sort of thing. You're constantly engaged. And that is truly what intentional living feels like. So my Florida move, I had no job lined up. I even bring a car with me. I just drove motor home down here. I didn't know, I didn't know a soul here, but I was lit up. I so about coming and incredible behind all of that. That's the feeling that you like to have when you're, in the driver's seat. so many things were happening, falling into place without really having to do much for it make it happen. just, like, I had a thought I needed, like, okay, now I need to get a car. Then I kind of laughed about it and said, that's funny. Like you can't Uber to go car because you know, you get there, you're like, don't see anything I like. Now you're stuck at the car lot. Try to wait for a ride to come pick you And within minutes of me having that thought and kind of laughing it, had a message from a friend who I had known for long time and racing and his background. He is a videographer he messaged me and said, hey, I have a buddy that lives in Panama City. I him about what you were doing and he told me to give you his phone number. Based on this guy's and I believe I understood that this friend was from his hometown. So assumed they were like old school friends or whatever. And so I thought, I wonder if this guy's retired. asked him and he said yes. Perfect. I need him to take me car shopping. That's exactly how, like things like that were happening all of the time. But it was because of the energy that I behind what I was doing. Everything just kept falling into place for me. So you can't control every detail, but you can control whether you're paying attention making choices versus just reacting. So if you find yourself drifting, there's nothing wrong with you. Drifting is just what happens when you operate on autopilot in life and you forget that you're allowed to take the wheel and steer where the direction you want to go. I hope the big takeaway too is that, you don't have to feel happy and lit up all the time. but to recognize when you are not joyful and then trying to make the decisions of what's going to get you to feeling that. So if this episode has you thinking, I do have something free for you. It's my visualization guide for intentional creation. And it's just a good companion about what I talked about today. it's the same method that I used when I started practicing intentional living. ⁓ takes less than 10 minutes to the practice. ⁓ And can get it on my at lisafrench.rocks.org slash visualization. or I'll also drop a link in the show notes. Also I'm on something right now for who are ready to stop and start deciding. I will have more to soon. So if that sounds like you're interested in, stay close. Thank you for being here.