AlittleBetter.net

When it comes to priorities we may say that something is important to us, but our actions just don’t show it. A quick test to see what your priorities really are? take a look at what you make time for. For most of us it seems to come out to work and career takes precedent over family, over personal dreams, over taking care of health… and the list goes on.

See a problem here? We have only one life that we are absolutely guaranteed. It is limited, and could be over at any second. This does not mean that we should put work completely on the back burner. Making a living is important, having the money to feed ourselves and family is important. What it does mean is that it is much more common for us to ignore the things that we say are important to us in favor of a job that we started working so that we could provide not only for our needs but for the other things that are important to us as well.

If you are valuing work over your own health, than you are drastically hurting your ability to work. If you are racked with guilt all day while you are at work, because you are breaking your promises to your family so that you can work for a boss who will not always be in your life than you are hurting your productivity at work. If you are saying that you can never travel or write a book because you have to work, than when are you going to live your life?

Don’t get me wrong here. Work is not your enemy, doing something productive in trade for the resources necessary to achieve your needs and wants is honorable. Providing for yourself brings freedom, and your boss is not the one who is really stopping you from your goals. Your job is not the thing keeping you from doing the things that you say you really want to. It comes down to a question of what is important to you.

If it is important to you to go on vacation than you can schedule time off, this may mean working a little extra hard for a month so that things go smoothly, but if its important to you, you can make it happen. If your health is important to you, than you can make the time for a Doctors appointment. If your children are important to you, than you can set aside at least one day a weekend to spend with them. This comes down to time management. This comes down to realizing that someday will never come until someday has a calendar date. One of these days does not exist, until you put exactly what day that is and clear it out.

In order to do this you may have to sit down and do some soul-searching. Take a look at the things you have made your priority. Make a record of how you spend the time in your week. Make a list of the things you’ve been wanting to do someday, and either take them off the list, hire someone else to do it, or set a calendar date on it. And not just a calendar date, but get a partner to keep after you and make sure you keep that calendar. It may not be easy, but since when does life come in easy? Since it doesn’t you may find that your excuses for not going after the things that you say are important to you, often don’t hold much water, and when they do maybe there is some rearranging that can be done in your life to make it so that you can still take care of whats important. Again this is your life, and you are only guaranteed one shot at it. As Henry Ford said “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.”