No matter who you are, intention is key to a successful life. By living with intention, you have better chances of prioritizing the way you spend your time and focusing on the things that matter most to you. Working towards your long-term goals with consistency is one of the surest ways to achieve more profound happiness. You may want to prioritize spending more time with your family, pursuing your personal passions, or advancing in your career.
At the same time, you have to balance your regular commitments, exercise, caring for your kids, and all the moving parts of daily life. Some of your priorities may even conflict with one another, forcing you to choose between making more money by staying later at work and spending time at home with your family.
Don’t forget about day-to-day tasks like responding to emails, running errands, and keeping up with friends, either! Every move you make can seem to eat away at your time. These are all reasons why it’s important to keep track of your priorities and act with intention. Your life can change for the better once you learn to put your biggest goals at the forefront of your efforts. When your priorities are in place, you can begin to live according to your innermost values and achieve your goals.
Develop Your Own Philosophy
When prioritizing your time, it’s important to establish a clear-cut idea of what you want to gain at the end. Most people organize their lives with the end goal of becoming more productive. Setting a specific goal allows you to develop a philosophy that will guide you towards it. Your personal philosophy is simply a set of rules you follow in daily life. It will help you make responsible decisions, from how you spend your time to who you associate with. Developing a personal goal-oriented philosophy can benefit all aspects of your life, from your career to your relationships to your lifestyle in general. It can even teach the people in your life what they can expect from you.
Think of your philosophy as a list of your core values. Take some time to ask yourself, “What matters the most to me? What’s at the top of the list of qualities I want to embody? What makes me, me?” These questions can help you discover who you really are. Whether you are trying to excel in fitness, finance, relationships, or at work, your core values will keep you aligned.
For example, if you are trying to be serious about your fitness, prioritizing your diet should be at the top of your list of values. Once you set that goal, you’ll accept that you may have to prioritize working out over other things, like hanging out with friends. This is the function of having specific core values that manifest as rules you set for yourself.
Align Your Values With Your Goals
Success tends to require setting goals. It’s common for people to talk about their goals without aligning their values accordingly. If your goal is to get a promotion, but you are often late to work, your values do not match your goals. When setting your goals, you should also consider what it’s going to take to reach them. Big life changes will require you to apply consistent effort over long periods. Your daily habits can help lead you to where you want to go. You can begin to cement those habits by creating a schedule.
If you want to become a pianist, spend 30 minutes a day practicing music. If you wish to build a stronger relationship with someone you care about, schedule some quality time with your undivided attention. Every time you finish a daily habit, your brain releases dopamine. It’s often referred to as the “feel-good” neuro link because, in a nutshell, dopamine makes you feel good. Once your brain gets that feeling, you will want to repeat the associated behavior. Eventually, these good habits will help you reach your goals.
Embrace Struggle and Celebrate Success
The process of reaching your goals will be filled with both great moments and plenty of hard ones. Struggling is simply a part of life, and anyone’s journey is subject to high stakes, unforeseen circumstances, complexities, stress, and pressure. Instead of looking at these facts of reality in a negative life, consider the fact that they are powerful life lessons that can build character. When you are met with struggle, avoid playing the victim or quitting. Accept the challenges and find the lesson that can be learned in any situation. In moments of struggle, try to ask yourself, “What is this moment teaching me?”
Becoming more productive is not guaranteed to be an easy process. It can take a lot of consistency and perseverance. Setting specific long-term goals and figuring out what you want out of life will allow you to be better equipped to create your own personal philosophy. Learn to make rules about how you prioritize your time and set boundaries to keep yourself on track, mentally and behaviorally. Many people struggle with mental disorders that make it more difficult to be consistently productive. Conditions like ADHD, depression, and anxiety can take your mind off of important tasks and processes you need to go through to reach your goals successfully. HealthyU can help you navigate your inner workings and figure out what changes you need to make to stay focused. We offer different programs and a plethora of powerful virtual resources. Get help prioritizing your life and working through your obstacles effectively. Contact us at (619) 542-9542 to learn more.
