Priorities: trading unending to-do’s for a better life
Are you running after time, feeling there are more things to do than hours in a day? Do you feel there should be more hours in the days, more days in a week and more energy to do it all? Too much work, too much on your plate, too many family activities… Even fun things become chores. Living life on the run is no fun. It costs you happiness, a sense of quiet inner confidence and purpose, the feeling you are entitled to live this moment.
Trying to do it all, hoping to have it ALL so you can be ‘there’ is exhausting – It’s been for years the North American way of life. It’s a free lifetime membership, shared by millions of people, who like you, rush as a way of life, to the next appointment, the next promotion, the next deadline. It becomes a life based on the quest of doing it all so you can have it all and only then BE: be a perfect parent, be a performant boss or employee, be a fit and fun person, be someone who has time to read the paper, yet thrives in the fast lane.
Living in the fast lane, being on 24-7 is exhausting and stressful, and it feels like being on the verge of overwhelmed on a good day, snowed in on a bad one. Living life in constant deadline alert mode projects you out of the moment and prevents you from enjoying this moment, right now.
Take a deep breath and take a moment to live aware. Raise your eyes. Look out a window, find something uplifting: the sky is a good start. Take another breath. Wow. You are really here, in this moment.
Having more? Doing more? Living is not a perfection contest There are no winners in a perfection contest, only moderate losers. Nobody, ever, is perfect. You are excellent as you are. The quest to doing more and having more is exhausting. The bigger car, the next promotion or salary raise, the bigger home, being a perfect parent to your kids, and so on… Doing it all in the hope of having it all is exhausting and prevents you from focusing on what truly counts for you.
Ask yourself: what are MY three most important priorities, in my life, right now? My guess is that your and your family health and happiness will be foremost, and that your next home, salary raise or car won’t be there. The 5pm meeting won’t hold to getting your kid from daycare or school a bit earlier today. The Monday deadline won’t eat away your weekend with family and friends.
There are only 24 hours in a day – and there is only ONE of you. How much of what’s on you plate in both yours and important? How much of your plate belongs to what your true priorities are? Once you are clear on your priorities, keep them solidly in place, and see how your plate becomes much easier to manage. No guilt – it’s just a matter of realistic priorities.
It’s all about priorities, knowing full well you can’t be everything to everyone, all the time.
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