What are your priorities in life? Do you tell yourself what they are? Are the written down somewhere in which you look at them at least daily or do you just have that list in your head?
I’ve learned a lot about priorities in the past couple years. It all started when I thought I would be great at direct selling. People always said, “speak it into truth.” So I told myself I would be great a lot. I didn’t believe it though. This is also a point in which I was coached on what to do and what to say. That was great, but i’m sure my voice sounded shaky ever time I did it. The biggest thing was I needed to take action on things. I had great intentions, but I always found a reason to not do it or maybe just do it crappy. Then I was in a training one time and someone said to the group, “it has to be a priority or it won’t get done.” I thought to myself, “well yes, of course it does. it is my priority to make this work so why am I not making it work.”
Fastforward some years and a whole lot of ups, downs, and life. I now have a much different and better understanding of what they were saying with my own cents of making priorities.
1. You can say things are a priority, but actions will always speak louder than words. If something is truly a priority, you will find a way to make it happen no matter the inconvenience.
2. I used to make a lot of excuses about why I couldn’t prioritize things. Until you turn your excuses into reasons to make things a priority, they won’t happen. Depending on how big the things are you need to prioritize, you may need to have a “why.” This being the deep trigger that will keep you going when it would be so much easier to quit.
3. I’ve learned that your priorities are just that, YOUR priorities. No one else’s. I’m sure I’m not alone when I get frustrated because I need someone to do something for me and it takes longer than I would like. Sometimes we just need to be patient which in todays world of instant gratification is difficult. Otherwise, don’t attach your priorities to someone else and get frustrated when they are not done in a “timely” fashion. I used to be really bad about this. Then I learned to work in a different direction and either find another way to get it done, or get something else done while I waited.
People also tend to have different types of priorities. Ones for yourself which usually get moved to the bottom. Ones for professional life. Those that a more urgent or time sensitive than others.
The problem I’ve found is they all tend to go on the same list, which then gets jumbled up and then we get overwhelmed with all the things we need to do. Then we get stressed because we look at the list and see all the things we need to do but wonder where the time is that all these tasks are going to fit it. CATAGORIZE your priorities and RATE them. You may also find that some things may not need to be on this list anymore.
When I say this I mean you can still make the list, but in some way with different highlighters, or a few different letters, or whatever your preference. Prioritize them based on time sensitivity and urgency. Some of those may need to be done in the next hour, half day, maybe by the end of the week, or even month. Nobody needs to get overwhelmed because, THEY ARE ALL TOP PRIORITIES!!!! Did you think that for a minute? Some of them might be. I bet if you took an extra 2 minutes and looked a little closer, you’d be able to take some things off the list that may not really be that important. Move them around and decide what needs to be done at this minute or in the next hour. You get my drift I hope.
If you are anything like me you really only have a couple things that need to be done today. And they really don’t take that long. But they need to be done, and you’ve been putting it off because it’s a scary thing and you just don’t want to do it. You know its a big priority and if you just did it, you could mark it off (oh the satisfaction). You’ll know how big of a priority it really is if you can take a couple deep breaths and figure it out. Just get it done and off that stupid to do list.
And one last tip, write things down. Yes its old school and who needs to write things down when your head is buried in your phone most of the time anyway? It’s been proven that when we physically write things down, we process them quicker, and remember them better. Write them on a stickie note and put it on a cabinet drawer or someplace your going to have to see it on a daily basis. Then it will remind you of what those priorities are and you are more likely to get them done.
I’m curious to know how you prioritize things and follow through with getting them done. Leave me a comment and let me know.
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