Faith & Inspiration · Feature Essay
What it means to build an intentional life in 2026 — and five people who are doing it
Photo: S Migaj
In an age of information overload and algorithmic anxiety, the idea of living with genuine intention sounds almost utopian. Quietly and steadily, a growing number of people are doing exactly that.
Somewhere between the morning alarm and the last scroll before sleep, most of us live a life that is more reactive than chosen. We respond to notifications, consume content the algorithm selected, and drift through weeks that feel full but somehow also empty. The people I’ve spoken to who seem genuinely settled in their lives describe something different. Not a system. A clarity.
“Intentionality isn’t about doing less. It’s about doing the right things for the right reasons — and being honest enough with yourself to know the difference.”
— Maryam Rashid, MLG
Five People, Five Versions of an Intentional Life
“I left a job that looked extraordinary from the outside and felt hollow from the inside. It took me three years to admit that, and another year to do anything about it. Now I feel — genuinely — like myself for the first time since my twenties. People keep asking if I’m brave. I think I was just finally honest.”
“The structure of five prayers a day means there are five moments in my day that belong entirely to me and to something larger than my inbox. Whatever else is happening, that rhythm holds. I didn’t always see it as a gift. Now I can’t imagine losing it.”
“It sounds so obvious it’s almost embarrassing. I decided to stop saying yes to things I didn’t want to do. I’d spent thirty years saying yes because saying no felt uncomfortable. Now I say no easily. It turns out most people barely notice.”
“The most powerful thing you can do in the attention economy is decide, deliberately and in advance, what you will and won’t give your attention to. Everything else follows.”
— Maryam Rashid, MLG
The common thread across all the people I spoke to isn’t a particular practice or philosophy — it is the act of choosing, consciously, rather than drifting. The result, in every case, was a life that felt — at its core — coherent. A life that fit.
