Setting Life Priorities

One of life’s questions comes when you are asked to prioritize areas in life you deem most essential. The daunting task requires you to tag a marker on the areas most needed, and then go down a list, finally landing at the bottom: least importance.

Complexities, chaos, and confusion come along to add some spice to the mix. We confuse priorities with fear or loss and then we cannot make a clear choice. Life presents challenges to the smooth status quo, so to prepare for the unexpected, we need to find time to see what matters most, and what we can do without. After all, experiencing confusion is a good sign. It means you might be starting to question what works best for you, your career, or your relationships.

Think about the following question: Have you thought about setting your life priorities to make your life easier? Does it make sense to rethink what you want and need rather than what others deem important for you?

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Whenever I begin telling people what I do for a living, they wonder how I am able to focus and not be biased. When I share the extra things I tackle, they wonder where I get the energy. After I share my accomplishments, and the plans for the future, I almost feel exhausted. If I take the time to prioritize my list, I have several highly essential functions I attend to three times a week, and then it’s my writing every morning, my breakfast and quiet coffee time, and after that, I work on crafting cards.

The ideas presented here helped me figure out my life’s priorities and continue to do so while I grow my business. The lesson I learned stays with me as I improve every day experiences into what matters most. Remember, each time you limit or remove less-essential elements of your life, you create the ability to focus on what means the most to you.

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When you’re struggling to determine what’s important to you, it’s hard to make decisions.

What will you do next?
Where will you go for the evening?
Who will you choose to pass the time with?

The emotional divide keeps us stuck. We feel torn between two or more people, or places and things. The common stumbling blocks show up if you haven’t identified your priorities. After all, when you consider everything and everyone in your life as all-equal in terms of their “level” of importance, it’s going to be tough to choose what to do next.

Setting your life priorities is a way of identifying what’s essential to you. Once you determine your priorities, you’ll be pleased with the ease of making decisions and the serenity, which comes with knowing you did the right thing.

Establishing priorities also gives you a clearer focus on how to allot your time. If you allot the bulk of your time to doing what’s most important with the most important people in your life, you’ll feel more fulfilled and satisfied with your life experiences….

Common Life Priorities

What might your priorities be? The possibilities are endless. In the list below, you’ll find many common priorities in no particular order.

Feel free to use the list as inspiration to help you figure out your own priorities.

Family
Spiritual or religious practices
Finances
Friends
Extended family
Education
Work or career
Hobbies
Personal appearance
Health and physical exercise/activities
Nutritious eating
“Alone-time” with partner
Quality time with the children
Playing games on the internet
Talking on the phone, Zoom, or Face-time
Watching television

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Example of a “Prioritized” Listing of Life Priorities

The whole idea of setting priorities is to put the many elements of your life into an order, with those you believe are most important to you at the top. Knowing your highest priority on the list is necessary in order to make focused, wise decisions that are right for you.

Brené Brown shared some insight when it came to prioritizing her life with her two children and her husband, Steve. They decided to give a percentage to activities: cooking, work, after school events, and her speaking engagements. She mentioned one night she came home and told Steve, “I think I am at a 20% capacity” and they set a schedule to allow some downtime. They choose to go to bed earlier and cut out one extracurricular activity the next week.

The good news? You can change your mind. As you improve your life, you can change priorities. Activities and events you want to move higher in priority do so without stress. You do not have to be a robot, constantly chasing the next oil can. Today is a good day to incorporate a strategy to help you self-care during difficult times. You will rebound stronger and resilient.

After experiencing AFIB in November, and felt distressful over my health, I learned to let go of some activities, reduce how much I do, and relax. I needed to develop my hobbies again: creating cards, and listen to music, which inspires me. I also set my daily writing on a consistent schedule: every morning after my 9 AM glass of water, I get to it. And every evening before bed, I am writing again so I can prepare assignments, lectures, and topics for my courses I am creating. Service to others is a priority to me.

Consider my list, which is prioritized, as an example of someone’s life priorities (in order).

1)Family
2) Alone-time with partner
3) Career and Education tied
4) Health and physical exercise
5) Nutritious eating
6) Friends
7) Personal appearance
8) Hobbies — creating cards, and reading

Coming Up With Your Own Priorities

Priority setting takes time and effort. However, to take the time to reflect on your day-to-day life and determine what’s on the top of your list makes your life so much easier. Once your priorities are clear to you, decisions on how to spend your time reveals itself seamlessly. Your engagement increases your success.

For example, you might realize you are spending most of your time hanging out with friends even though you feel your family is more important. Or you aren’t taking as much care of yourself like you thought, by over-spending time with others rather than down time. Maybe your kids are acting out and you realize your time needs to put them first for awhile.

Remember, each time you limit or remove less-essential elements of your life, you create the ability to focus on what means the most to you.

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You can live more joyfully by setting your life priorities. Knowing what’s important to you and devoting your time to those things at the top of your list will ensure you experience an enriched and fulfilled life. Set your life priorities today.

~Just a thought by Pamela

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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