Time.
It’s our most valuable resource, the one resources that we can never get more of. It’s what the rich and the wise value above just about everything else. Money comes and go, possessions come and go, but time only goes. If you ask a man what he values don’t listen to what he says, instead look at what he does. Where he spends this non-renewable resource is what he values.
Look at your own life and what you value. It’s always instructive to take a week and make a time log of how you spend your time during that week. Because usually there’s a big difference between how we think we’re spending our time in our heads and how we’re actually spending it in reality. This is why tracking things is so important.
For example we say we value health but how often do we get to the gym or workout? How often do we take the time to cook a decent meal instead of eating whatever is around and easy? How often do we shut off the electronics or make sure we’re in early to get a good night’s rest?
Where you spend your time is what you value. Go ahead and take a week and list out how you spend every hour of the day. Then reflect on it at the end of the week. I guarantee you that you’ll be surprised. Even productive people leave plenty of time on the table, wasted. I’m not saying you have to regiment every moment of your day but look at how you’re spending your time.
But that’s not what this article is about. This is about figuring out your priorities. And what are priorities? Things that are most important to us. Things that we spend our time on. And how do we know where we should be spending our time? How do we know what should be most important to us? Not what others think should be, but what we think should be?
It all has to do with one simple things.
Goals, The Northern Star Of Your Life
What do you want out of life? If you don’t know the answer to this question, at least in some capacity, you’re never going to get very far and you’re probably not going to be very happy. If you don’t have any idea of this, take some time to sit down and think it through. What do you want out of life? What do you want to accomplish? Who do you want to be? You don’t have to have a definite answer but you need some general guidelines. And you’ll have many of these goals. None of us only want to accomplish one thing in life. We have goals that span a variety of areas.
But let’s say that you have some some goals now. But you’re not sure how to prioritize them and which ones should come first. Again we have to go back to what do you want out of life? Then add in ‘what do you want MOST out of life’. Let’s say that you could only accomplish one of the goals that you have for yourself, which one would it be? Think about this. As with so much in life, self-reflection is the key to really making progress.
Most people’s goals will break down into one of four areas. Wealth, health, challenge, or relationships. For example climbing a mountain or competing professional in a given sport are challenge goals, though obviously they have health components as well. Leaving your job and starting your own business or moving free from where you live are wealth goals. And finding a stable LTR or having children one day are relationship goals. And so on and so forth.
I cannot sit here and say which one you should pursue at a given time. Everyone’s situation is different. I’d tend to say that the wealth ones allow for the other ones so pursue wealth first but that can also be wrong depending on what one wants. Again it comes down to that essentially question.
What do you want?
The Price To Pay
If you can’t figure out what you want or which goal should have priority then do this. Look at what it’ll take to accomplish each goal. Write it down with pen and paper. List out what daily actions and what incremental goals are going to have to be accomplished to achieve the goal that you want. Look at what its going to take month by month, day by day, week by week. Now try and live that way for a week. Are you willing to put in the work to achieve that goal.
Go through a week of what it’d be like and see how much you really want that goal. What are you willing to sacrifice to make it. Don’t just look at comfort things like browsing social media less, watching TV less, or things of that nature, though of course those should go first. Also look at what you’d have to cut out from your other goals to get to where you want to go.
Actually live it for a little bit and see how you feel. Action has a habit of clearing up what you want and where you want to go very fast. Even writing it down is better than leaving it be and not thinking about it. Sort through your goals, prioritize them, and then seek to accomplish them. Also look for goals that’ll help other goals if accomplished.
Self-reflect.
It doesn’t matter if you understand that you should do this but don’t. Understanding is only the first step, action, putting it out into the world is the second step and the step with all the power to it.
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-Charles Sledge
