Make Your PRIORITIES a PRIORITY

(be sure to check out the podcast on iTunes or on the RSS feed)

I don't really  have a lot more to say/write about this topic. I do encourage you to be sure to listen to the podcast on this last part of the series and be sure to follow through with the steps lined out to help you focus in on what your priorities really are.

Remember, belief without ACTION gets you nowhere (faith without works is dead). So, stop talking about what you WANT your priorities to be and start doing ...let me emphasize that word DOING...whatever it takes to get YOUR priorities as YOUR priorities.

Here's a thought you won't find in the podcast and one that I believe to be true: "Priorities are like a lot of other things in your life. If YOU don't pick them, someone else will!"

That should be a sobering thought.

So, once again, if you've not done so, go back and AT LEAST listen to and read the series on "PRIORITIES" from this week. However, I suggest you go back to the series on "TIME" the week before to tie all of these things together.

And then...

TAKE ACTION!

Be sure to join me tomorrow for a podcast/blog for a completely unrelated topic! You'll be glad you did! And, until then, be sure to...

"Make it an AWESOME day! (Who else is going to do it for you?)"

Mike

PRIORITIES: Make Them YOURS

(be sure to check out the podcast on iTunes or on the RSS feed)

We actually began this journey in last week's podcast and blog when I began talking about our use of time and the need for us to "re-purpose" some of our time so that we can use it for what is really important to us. I even had you make a list of all the things that you would do IF you only had the time and, we all discovered that the time was actually there all along.

Along with that I had you make a list of your daily activities and encouraged you to carry that out for at least a week so that you could get a pretty good picture of what was really important to you in your life and to also find those "time bandits" that most of us have in our schedules. By finding those "time bandits" and "re-purposing" that time for something more important and of more value we can actually "get more" out of the same 24 hours that we all have.

The natural connection is this: we FIND the time or TAKE the time to do what is important to us and, that being so, we FIND the time or TAKE the time for those things that are PRIORITIES in our lives.

So, this week, as I have been discussing priorities, I've asked that you go back and use that same daily schedule to pinpoint what your priorities actually are. What are they? The things that we have found that we spend most of our time doing in a day. I also asked that you make a heading on a piece of paper that read, "What I WANT My Priorities to Be" and then to list all of the things that you WANT to be of importance or a priority in your life.

Most - if not all of us - will find that what we WANT and what we HAVE are not always the same thing...even in this area of priorities. So, here's where the real work begins...we have the tools before us to discover what our priorities actually ARE (and we may discover that they are not even OUR priorities!) and how to compare them to what we WISH they were.

WHAT NOW?

As usual, that is up to you. Oh, wouldn't it be easy if I could just fix it for you or if you could go to bed and, in the morning it be all corrected? We know better than that yet, many of us still expect it to happen without us actually having to DO anything or make any decisions that require action on our part.

But that, my friend, is NOT reality. Now that we have been able to take a look and see what IS as opposed to what we wish WAS, it's now time to get busy and decide how important (how much of a PRIORITY) it is to get our PRIORITIES straight!

It's easy to talk about and even exciting to SEE what CAN be but, friend, if you don't TAKE ACTION then you will stay right where you are. It is IMPOSSIBLE to move forward by standing still.

So, YOU decide. Re-purpose whatever time you need to in order to start getting these PRIORITIES at the top (uh, that's what MAKES them a priority, right?) and stop making excuses.

Be sure to listen to the podcast for some more insight on this...you'll be glad you did!

Get on with this thing called life and make it YOUR life with YOUR priorities. Again, you'll be glad you did! Until next time, be sure to...

"Make it an AWESOME day! (Who else is going to do it for you?)"

Mike

PRIORITIES: Are They YOURS?

(be sure to check out the podcast on iTunes or on the RSS feed)

Have you ever received an e-mail that was marked as "priority"? You know, the ones with the red exclamation marks by them indicating that this is something REALLY important (a priority, right?) that you MUST open right away! And, friend, how many times has this actually been true? Yeah, hardly ever - IF ever - for me, either.

Have you ever had a friend call you, text you, e-mail you and tell you that they had an emergency and that they needed your help RIGHT AWAY only to find out it was nothing of any major importance...at least to you? I'm sure most - if not all - of you have had someone in a position "above you" at work drop something on your desk telling you that this needed to be done A.S.A.P. and that it was of "utmost importance". And, have you rushed to get it done while leaving a lot of other things UNdone only to find out that it sat on that person's desk for a week after you got it to them "A.S.A.P."?

I have a sign somewhere that used to hang in my office that reads, "Lack of planning on your part does NOT mean an emergency on mine."

GOOD POINT.

As you go through that list that shows your daily activities and as you begin to see what your priorities actually are (not what you WISH they were) you need to also begin to ascertain something else. How many of these priorities are actually YOURS? (By the way, if you've not done these lists, go back and listen to yesterday's podcast and read yesterday's blog and get going on it!).

I hate having to do so many "disclaimers" but I feel that I must because there are so many people that are just waiting for someone to give them "permission" to feel good about their wrong ideas (even if that "permission" is a twisting of what is actually said). So, here we go...

DISCLAIMER: The fact that you'd rather be doing something different does NOT mean that a particular priority in your life is not necessary. EXAMPLE: Sure, I'm guessing ANYONE would rather be doing something else besides changing a diaper and wiping up drool but, if that is where you are in your life right now, it IS a priority and it IS necessary. DO NOT take that to mean that it is someone else's priority and think that you shouldn't be doing that particular thing.

There, now are we on the same page?

Here's the point I'm trying to make about all of this...don't let someone else determine the size of your dreams (one of my "7 Daily Affirmations") and don't let someone else determine what is to be of importance in your life.

For example, many may try to convince you that you need to be working as many hours as possible while you can and that your children won't mind because you'll be able to furnish them with all of the "cool STUFF" that so many other kids wish they had. Don't buy into that! I often heard it said that no one, at the end of their life, ever says "I wish I had spent more time at the office" but many DO say, "I wish I had spent more time with my kids!".

Our oldest son and his wife recently had their first baby (our first GRANDbaby) and she is now almost 4 months old. They cannot hardly believe that she is already that age. JUST WAIT (and yes, I've told them), it goes by SO fast...WAY too fast. No matter how young your children are please get this - YOU ONLY HAVE A FEW YEARS TO MAKE A MAJOR IMPACT ON THEIR LIVES! Do not allow anyone else to convince you that something else is of more importance than this.

Hey, even take a look at your career. Is it something that is important to YOU or to someone else? (Again, I'm not giving you "permission" to back up an idiotic idea that you should quit work and go sell shells in a shack by the sea shore. Wow, that was almost a tongue twister!) But is this something YOU wanted to do or is it something someone else decided (and put pressure on you about) was what you needed to do with your life.

Notice the last two words in that last sentence...YOUR LIFE!

So yeah, you have some more homework to do going all the way back to that original list showing your daily activities. Now, go through your "priorities" that are made evident to you and determine how many of these are actually YOUR priorities.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

Until next time, be sure to...

"Make it an AWESOME day! (Who else is going to do it for you?)"

Mike

PRIORITIES: What's Yours?

(be sure to check out the podcast on iTunes or on the RSS feed)

PRIORITIES...some have them, some don't, all should! However, if the truth is to be known on this matter, we ALL have priorities whether we realize it or not. Even if you don't think you have them, take a moment and think about choices you made today that would indicate otherwise. Or, just take a look at your bills and ask yourself why you pay them in the order that you do. Or, if money is tight, how do you decide which bill to pay and which one to wait on until later? PRIORITIES!

The word "priority" is defined (as a noun) in the following way as found on www.dictionary.com ... 1. the state or quality of being earlier in time, occurrence, etc. 2. the right to precede others in order, rank, privilege, etc.; precedence.  3. the right to take precedence in obtaining certain supplies, services, facilities, etc., especially during a shortage. 4. something given special attention.

When you look at the adjective definition you will find the following... "highest or higher in importance, rank, privilege, etc.".

As a matter of fact, you made reading this blog a priority over doing something else, right? Sure you did!

Here's something to think about: PRIORITIES and PROCRASTINATION have a very close - but not healthy - relationship with each other. Many of our PRIORITIES fall to the wayside due to PROCRASTINATION. Again, to continue this thought, even procrastination is a way of prioritizing what actually IS important to us in our lives.

Here's a couple of things to get you started for this week as we prepare to go through this series...

     1. Get a new sheet of paper and write this across the top: "WHAT I WANT MY PRIORITIES TO BE IN MY LIFE"

     2. Just like last week, brainstorm - NO WRONG ANSWERS - and honestly write down what you really want to have in your life as far as priorities.

     3. Now, go back and get that list that shows your schedule (what you actually DID during the day - not what you PLANNED to do) and try to carry that out for at least a week if you haven't done so already

     4. If you carry this out for a week it should give you a pretty good idea of what your priorities actually have been over this time period. EVEN IF you haven't done it but for a day or two it will still give you an idea of what your PRIORITY was for those couple of days.

    5. Now, on the back of the sheet you started in #1 (or on a new sheet), based on what you have discovered from looking over your "daily activities/schedule sheet"...write this heading: "WHAT MY PRIORITIES CURRENTLY ARE IN MY LIFE" and write down what you have found to be true.

Don't beat yourself up over this, o.k.? You may discover that, out of necessity, one of your main priorities right now is your young child(ren). That's not a bad thing at all and, by doing this exercise, you will actually discover if that actually IS a priority or if it's what SHOULD be (but it's not) a priority in your life right now.

Please take the time to do this - it will mean so much more to you and FOR you if you will!

PRIORITIES..we all have them whether we think we do or not and they are not always what we want them to be. Join me again tomorrow as we delve into this topic a bit more. But, until then...

"Be sure to make it an AWESOME day! (Who else is going to do it for you?)"

Mike