What is a priority in your life?

You may have a job, have children, a marriage, pets, etc and all of these things take priority of your life in some way. You have a to-do list a mile long. I get it I am looking at my “to-do” list right now with 28 things to do on it for the day, and that is just for business, it doesn’t include managing my household.

I firmly believe that if you don’t control your priorities, your priorities will control you. There was a time when I let everything else in this world control me. My career, my clients, anyone that needed to meet with me, volunteer activities, my spouse, everything. I let the day just happen to me. If you asked me then I would tell you that I was “so busy,” but busy doing what?

Most of the time I was doing stupid things that I had no business doing. Things that had no real value in my life or in the lives of the people around me. One of the biggest things I hate in this world is seeing parents use their kids as an excuse for not having time for things that are important.

When you look back on your life growing up, what are the things you remember? Is it the lavish vacations, is it the eight sports you played and the ten practices you had every week? My guess is you remember those things but they aren’t the things that hold significant value to you. I bet that the memories you really hold on to were of times that were much simpler, when things were a bit slower in whatever you were doing.

I am reminded of the country song with the line that says “I’m in a hurry to get things done, I rush and rush until life’s no fun. All I really got to do is live and die but I’m in a hurry and don’t know why.”

Do you know why you are always in a hurry? Do you know why you do things that are unimportant all the time. Your competing “priorities” are what are keeping you from living a better life. Your competing “priorities” are what are leaving you lost and unfocused.

Your competing “priorities” are keeping you from truly living.