When we feel like we are working hard but not getting anywhere it is probably because our priorities are not aligned with our values. A priority is when we hold one thing more important than another. A value is something we regard as having high worth or is very useful. So let's starts to explore our values.
My first thing I usually ask myself when examining my values is what is important to me. Some of the words that come to my mind are faith, self-respect, love, family, fun, service, community, trust, leader, and caring. Your values will be different from mine. Everyone was made unique with a certain set of skills. Since yours are different than mine we each have different items that are important to us.
My next questions usually involves who is important to me. For me I will not lose my time with God. That is the most important thing for me each day. It is a non-negotiable. Everyday my time with God id both a priority and a value this relationship. My husband and then my kids are the next in my list of important people. I value my time with my husband. I also cherish every moment with my kids. In this stage of life my kids get more of my time than most other stuff as they will only be young like this once.
Another thing you need to look at as you look at your values is are any activities that are important to you. I absolutely love scrapbooking but in this season of life it has taken a backburner. I also love to read, play video games, and spend time with my family. Reading and video games are something that I do for relaxation. I will only do these times when everything else on my to do list is complete. Brian and I have our scheduled Friday night date nights. Also most evenings we spend some time talking. We also have our morning devotional and prayer time together. The girls have been my main priority lately. ABC are a pretty independent but still need me for some things. D is completely dependent on me.
I also love to workout and cook with my husband. We make our workouts a priority. This is our time each day. It is only 30 minutes and we can give it our all and forget about everything else that has happened that day. Cooking with him has been less lately with a new baby. I'm usually trying to breastfeed while he is making dinner. It is only a season and we will get back to cooking together every night again soon.
As I wrote out these values and what is important to me I realized that the reason that I've probably been successful is that my priorities and values align with one another. I have some non-negotiable like my time with God. I also have things that are so important to me that I won't miss them like time with my kids and husband and working out. It made me realize that I have gotten rid of the items that aren't helping me right this second like scrapbooking. While I love it there just isn't enough hours in the day.
I also realized that I've already prioritized even my values. I took my top three or four and made them things I do everyday. Those that weren't as important to me may or may not happen in a day and those that were just purely for fun don't happen at all in this stage of life. I realized everyday I have a chance to choose my actions and am I going to choose those that will help me achieve my goals or will I choose those that will pull my down.
So today I am going to embrace my values and priorities. I am going to get rid of the worry of what others think about my list of priorities. I also going to quit comparing my values to others. I going to surround myself with those positive people that help me see that we need community to succeed. That each of us has a specific function and must come together to get anything done. I'm also going to trust myself and what I believe in and try not to second guess every decision I make.
See if your values and priorities align today. Why don't you try this exercise? I hope everyone has a blessed day. I'm excited to have a day playing in the gym with B and C and then I get to have a fun family weekend.
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