Where do You Rank?

We all have responsibilities, commitments, daily rituals and practices that are a part of our every day routines, and then, the goals and ambitions that we aim to achieve. Sometimes there may be a road block or obstacle thrown in the mix to really test us, where we end up asking ourselves how important those priorities and daily rituals are to us.

How do you rank aspects of your health on your priority list? And no this isn’t a trick question, but rather an opportunity for you to gauge what things are important to you in order to be “healthy”. Whether it’s family dinner at least 4 times a week, a trip to the gym four days a week, choosing salads when you eat out for dinner, going for a walk after a long day of work, taking one weekend every two months to unplug and detach, sharing a date night with your significant other at least twice a week to catch up, making time for meditation or a good night’s sleep. There are many aspects of “healthy” and “healthy living” that can fill our lives, but all I want you to do is choose one for now.

Write out all of your responsibilities from budgeting your income and expenses to sleeping, making a home cooked meal, working on your relationship, finishing school or a course, playing a sport — whatever it is. Write down the things you do and the things you want to do (with a pen and paper here)! Now using a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is not important to you at all and 10 is very important, rank those items.

Are there items you ranked on the list that are important to you but that you know you don’t quite have all together, or that you haven’t had time to work on? Or are there things on that list that you may have left out but that you would like to get to? It’s O.K. to say yes or no here…..but what’s important is that you identified a ranking.

Choose one thing on that list that is important to you, but that deep down you feel you haven’t given the respectful time to completing that project, or getting better at that skill. Just choose one. It’s O.K. if there are a few – choose the one that you feel the deepest connection to knowing it is time you act on it. Now find your calendar, a pad of hot pink sticky notes, your phone calendar or whatever you use to remind yourself to do something or schedule in meetings and reminders and get ready to act on it! Remember – just choose one thing. Trying to change too many things at once may be a little overwhelming and make us feel the task is too hard, wanting to give up soon after we’ve started the three new things!

Are you ready to schedule you in? That’s how it’s going to start to happen. Think about all of the things you schedule in in a day – that meeting, that phone call, getting your kids or family from point A to B, or visiting a family member or friend. And while these are all important, we need to ensure we schedule in US into our daily lives too. It’s not selfish, but rather it provides the urgency to give ourselves time – whether it’s for our physical, mental or emotional health. Write it in your calendar with a pen and when that time comes up, aim to complete the task. If you would like to treat yourself to a massage every 6 weeks, make the appointment. If you want to walk 20 minutes during your lunch hour, write it in and when that alarm goes off, “Move”, “Go”, “I’ve got this”, “This is for Me”.

Consistency – that’s another big aspect here. Being consistent in your actions will allow you to see it as being a daily habit. Try not to give up on yourself after a few days. Mark your new action in your reminder or calendar for 1 month straight and see how you do!

For me, I am good at recognizing what I want to accomplish, and getting started on it, but I get distracted easily when immersed in some of those new tasks. Yup! Between social media, e-mails popping up, unexpected phone calls, or inspiration to write a new article, or cook, I can easily get side tracked from the task I intentionally set out to getting done. But I’m great at making time to sit down to eat my meals, go to the gym each day, do some meal prep for the week, or schedule in that massage and when I’m in those tasks just doing them and completely free from distractions. So, my challenge and goal for this month will be once I sit down to head into my action items, to set a dedicated time of 30 minutes (I get twitchy and antsy after this much time) to stay focused within the task.

So, where are you going to take the leap? There is something spectacular about the switch of September to October with a whole fresh month of crisp cool air, clarity in our thoughts and still a warm sun to feel fresh. Keep it up! You know you can do this!