Life Tip · 4 sections · 3 min read
Priorities
Priorities or excuses? Every day, you choose. Here is how to make sure you are choosing the right one.
What you do with your time tells the truth about what you value. Not what you say you value. Not what you wish you valued. What you actually value, right now, today. The good news is that this is something you can change.
“Action expresses priorities.”— Mahatma Gandhi
What Are Your Priorities?
Everyone has 24 hours. And everyone chooses what to do with them. As an adult, if you do not pay your taxes, you choose to have problems with the IRS. In the same way, if you do not align your priorities with your goals, you choose not to reach them.
Not because you do not want to. But because in that moment, something else was a priority.
The question is not whether you have priorities. You always do. The question is whether your priorities are pointing in the direction you actually want to go.
Try This
Write down how you spent your time yesterday. Compare it to what you say your priorities are. Be honest about the gap.
Priorities vs. Excuses
The "my dog ate my homework" excuse does not work when you are both the teacher and the student. Finding excuses, or lacking the self-discipline to make something a real priority, can hold you back from reaching your goals for years.
Instead of finding excuses, find small wins. Write out your goals. Take one step. Complete one thing. Those little wins build confidence and momentum. They prove to you that you are capable. And when you feel capable, excuses have less power.
Having responsibility, respect, and commitment to yourself puts you above everything else. When you focus on results, even small ones, you move forward.
Try This
The next time you catch yourself making an excuse, write it down. Then write one action you could take instead.
Attitude and Commitment
The most important action is that something takes place. What changes in the person who goes from excuses to results? Two things: attitude and commitment.
You can keep saying you want to improve your life. Or you can make it happen. It starts with finding something deep inside you. A commitment to yourself. A respect for your own potential. A responsibility to do what you said you would do.
That is the transformation. And it is available to anyone who decides to make it.
Try This
Write one sentence describing the commitment you are making to yourself right now. Keep it somewhere you will see it every day.
How Will You Change Your Life?
Make a list of the things that are most important to you right now. Then make a separate list of your most important priorities. Compare the two. Are they aligned?
Every time you are about to make an excuse, pause. Ask yourself: is this a priority or is this an avoidance? Note the pattern.
Over time, choosing priorities over excuses becomes automatic. That is how you build a life that actually looks like the one you want.
Try This
Make your two lists today — what matters most to you and your current priorities. Identify one place they do not match and decide what to change.
Put This Into Practice
The Values Compass and Goal Builder maps help you see what you want and whether your life is pointed in that direction.