INTRO:
What does priorities mean? How much it affects our mental health and wellbeing? And How to identify our priorities in life?
Welcome to Minutes of Facts Podcast. Today we will talk about Priorities!
Definition of priorities:
Your priorities are the things that you give the greatest importance to.
It’s the stuff that matters to you more than anything else in the world – often, for most of us it’s aligned to the people, places and bigger-picture concepts or spiritual notions that are of the greatest value to us.
Working through your priorities isn’t about creating some sort of ranking system for the things and people in your life – it’s not a competition, and there are no winners or losers. Nor is being clear about your priorities an excuse for not trying new things or just being rigidly focused on one goal – because if you do that then you will miss out on all of the surprising twists and turns that life has to offer.
Very often things will happen that might not seem in your best interests at the time, but later on
it might turn out to be just the thing that you needed to take you to the next step in your journey, so I’m a firm believer in remaining aligned to your priorities whilst also keeping an open mind and heart.
Priorities and mental health:
In our society we have this slightly deluded perspective that happiness should be the end-goal for everything we do, as though it’s some permanent state of bliss that can be achieved if we just do this one more thing or buy this one product. And I think we all know deep down inside that it doesn’t make any sense.
The reality is that happiness is fleeting. It’s not some grand state to be achieved permanently but instead it’s something to be found in all of the little moments that make up our day-to-day lives. Even if you were to instantly have all of your current problems disappear overnight, I guarantee that you would find new ones before the month is out. Instead of constantly chasing happiness, we should be devoting our energy to becoming self-aware and being the sort of person
who we want to be – and you do that by understanding what’s important to you, then setting your priorities accordingly.
Priorities and reflexion:
Defining your priorities involves being honest with yourself and making a list of what matters most to you. For many of us, our priorities are connected to the people we love the most – which is great, however I want to ensure that we’re all clear that your priorities cannot be at your own expense; you need to be your highest priority because if you don’t look after you, who will?
How to make your priorities list:
- Reflect – think about what’s important to you and brainstorm a list, making it as long or as short as feels right to you.
- Reflect again – read through your list and ask yourself what you might have missed?
- Review – review each item individually and ask yourself, “Is this really important to me? And if so, why is it important to me?” If you’re not sure, reflect. And reflect again. This is the time to dig deep. Don’t just put something on your list for the sake of it. Really ask yourself why each item is on your list and whether it remains relevant today. Keep in mind, Times change, people change, priorities change. Focus on now.
- Rank – now look at each item on your list and ask yourself: if you didn’t have this in your life anymore, how would your life be? If you couldn’t imagine finding a way through life without it, then it goes towards the top of your list. If you could find a way to function, but you wouldn’t want to let it go, then it goes towards the bottom of your list. You don’t have to rank them in order – this isn’t a competition. Just ‘high’, ‘medium’ and ‘low’ tends to be more than enough to get a sense of importance.
- Refine – you might decide to do this step (especially if your list is long) or you might decide to skip it all together, it’s your choice; the step is to refine. Ask yourself: if you had to choose between something at the top of your list and something towards the bottom, could you? Would you? This is a chance to think through what is really, really, really important to you rather than just identifying what is important. The shorter your list, the better.
- Review – look at your list and reflect for a moment. What does your list say about who you are as a person? What does it say about the person that you want to be?
- Reconsider – is there anything on your list that is out of alignment with who you want to be? If there is, then what do you need to do to change it? What do you need to make a priority in order to be the person you want to be? What do you need to do more of, or less of? Reconsider your list in line with who you want to be. And when it comes to material items – be ruthless. If your house were on fire you could probably only grab one or two things so don’t have a list as long as your arm. It’s just stuff.
- Refine further – If your list is still extensive (which I would generously define as double digits) then refine, refine, refine. If you can, get it down to no more than five things. Why? Because it’s easier to do the next bit with a small list than it is trying to juggle 18 things!
OUTRO:
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Stay Safe and Healthy. Talk to you next time!
