Prioritize By Values

So you have way too much to do. You just can’t seem to keep up with everything that you’re asked to do. Your schedule is slam-full every day of the week and there are still things that need to get done. What can you do? Are people, like bosses, friends and family just asking way too much of your time? Or, do you just not know how to say No? Well, take heart, as a Coach, I hear this same scenario described to me on a fairly consistent basis. Welcome to the 21^st Century, where technology has outpaced our ability to add four or five more hours to each day. Something’s got to give!

That “something” should be “someone” and that someone should be you. You should give yourself a break from the rat race and allow yourself to take a deep breath…now exhale…relax… and realize that if there is going to be any change of pace in your race, it’s has to come from you. There are day planners, day runners, time planners and software that are all designed to help you manage your time, but you’re usually too darn busy to fill them out! So here is a simple three-step process that might help you out. You can do it over a couple of evenings when you can make a few minutes of “quite time” for yourself. If you can’t seem to do that, call me, and we’ll talk about that issue.

The first step is to sit down and put pen to paper. Make a list of your own personal values. The things that are really important to you. Let it flow and put down as many as you can think of. Think about things like health, family, spirit, integrity, honesty, and truth. Don’t go into detail; just get as many on paper as you can. After that is done, go to bed and do no more on this project. If you’re like most of my clients, you’ll wake up in the morning and add a few more values to your list. When that list is completed, look it over and pick your top three or four values. No more than that, four at the most. These four values will become very important to you as you move forward in life.

The second step is to sit down again with pen and paper, stay away from the word processor, and make a list of everything that you need to do, are asked to do, have to do, want to do; you catch my drift here? Make sure that you capture it all. Everything. Leave nothing out, no matter how small or trivial it may seem. When the list is complete, go to bed again and sleep on it. Once again who’ll probably wake up and add a few things you’ve left off the list. Two things come to thought at this point. Isn’t the sub-conscious mind incredibly powerful? And, isn’t that one heck of a monster To-Do list you’ve got there!

Here’s step three is the fun part. Use your list of top three or four values as a “litmus test” to judge everything else on your To-Do list. If an activity fills all of your values, do it! If an activity fills none of your values, don’t do it. Prioritize everything else in between. When you are engaging in activities that are in alignment with your core values, you will experience a remarkable fulfillment in doing those things. One of these keys to happiness is living a life of abundant fulfillment, not just one of satisfactory contentment. God wants that for all of us.

You deserve “more” of your time on this planet than just being content. People and jobs that make requests of your time in activities that do not bring you this level of fulfillment should be very closely scrutinized. It’s committing to doing all of those non-fulfilling activities that wears down our spirit, mind and body. When we are engaged in activities that fulfill our core values, a wonderful thing called INSPIRATION comes to visit our lives.

When YOU are living an inspired, fulfilled, values driven life, I’ll bet your To-Do list will look much different that the one you have today. I’ll bet your life will also look much different than it does today!