13 Prime Priorities in Life Examples [2024 Update]

They are saying, 

“On the finish of your life, you’ll remorse what you didn’t do slightly than what you probably did.”

Let that sink in for a second…

For many people, life boils right down to what we do (or don’t do) tomorrow, in every week, or, at greatest, in a month. 

Some dwell paycheck to paycheck, whereas others survive Monday by way of Friday solely to benefit from the weekend and begin over.

We hardly ever take the time to place life into perspective and attempt to perceive what’s actually vital to us.

Maybe we’re afraid that if we put life in perspective, we’d understand that we unconsciously prioritize actions that don’t contribute to our happiness and achievement. 

I by no means absolutely resonated with the ‘YOLO mentality,’ particularly when individuals use it as a license to behave recklessly.  

Nonetheless, I firmly consider that we should always remind ourselves every day that life doesn’t final endlessly and construct our priorities round this tough reality.      

Cultivating Sustainable Happiness 

Happiness is a precedence and a purpose that deserves all of your effort and time. 

Maybe you’ve advised your self 1,000,000 instances that you need to be happier and luxuriate in life extra. Or perhaps you consider happiness everytime you encounter a motivational quote on social media. 

However happiness is not only an summary idea or phrase you ‘hashtag’ in your social media posts. Speaking, posting, or fascinated about happiness gained’t make you happier. 

Happiness is a purpose-driven mindset that you just train and domesticate commonly. It’s an perspective and a way of life that boils down to 2 questions: 

Some specialists declare happiness is a sustainable course of comprised of 4 phases. [1]

Right here’s how the authors describe every stage of the cycle:

As you may see, happiness doesn’t at all times should be a philosophical idea. Generally, a sensible outlook may be exactly what it’s essential flip happiness into one thing extra ‘tangible’ and achievable. 

However to set the happiness cycle in movement, you should make clear your priorities and set particular objectives.

See 54 Methods to be a Happier Particular person

The Prime 5 Regrets of the Dying 

Right here’s an eye-opener. A few weeks in the past, I stumbled upon a e book that has made me rethink a few of my selections and reorganize my priorities in life.

Considered one of my shoppers is coping with a extreme type of treatment-resistant melancholy. He spends hours ruminating and regretting previous choices, so I believed I might refresh my reminiscence and discover new methods to strategy this case.

That’s how I discovered The Prime 5 Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware, a former palliative carer who shares a number of the commonest and heartbreaking regrets of individuals on their deathbed.  

Are you aware these moments if you assume you might have all of it discovered, however then one thing comes alongside and makes you reevaluate your perspective?

That’s precisely how I felt after studying this e book.   

1. I want I’d had the braveness to dwell a life true to myself, not the life others anticipated of me

One of many greatest regrets of the dying just isn’t residing in tune with what they believed was actually vital.

Desires are forgotten, and concepts are misplaced as we drown ourselves in work, debt, and obligations that we by no means wished within the first place.

Be sincere! How most of the priorities you concentrate on proper now are yours?

Takeaway: Honor your beliefs and goals—no less than a few of them.

2. I want I hadn’t labored so arduous

Whether or not we prefer it or not, we spend a lot of our lives working. We provide effort and time in change for the cash wanted to outlive and guarantee an honest high quality of life.  

However there’s a distinction between working and shedding your self in work. 

Time is a restricted useful resource, and you can not purchase it again, so spend it correctly.    

Takeaway: Spend money on significant work however depart house in your life for different actions.

3. I want I’d had the braveness to specific my emotions

Feelings are like your shadow. They exist no matter whether or not you acknowledge their presence, and regardless of how a lot you attempt to run from them, they’ll at all times be there with you.

Sadly, we regularly resort to avoidance and emotional suppression as a result of we don’t know find out how to categorical ourselves, worry rejection and criticism, or consider we don’t deserve acceptance and understanding.

Since you can not management how others react, there’s no level in preserving your feelings bottled up inside.    

Takeaway: Personal your vulnerabilities, communicate truthfully, and categorical your feelings. 

4. I want I had stayed in contact with my associates

When dealing with loss of life, individuals usually concentrate on placing their monetary affairs so as. However they don’t do it for the sake of standing and cash; they do it to make sure a superb way of life for his or her family members.

However you don’t have to attend till you’re in your deathbed to point out take care of those you’re keen on. And it’s not at all times about cash.

It’s about investing in significant relationships by making room in your life for the individuals who love and recognize you.      

Takeaway: Love and relationships can contribute to happiness greater than cash can.

5. I want that I had let myself be happier

This remorse usually stems from a false impression that folks typically have about what it means to be pleased.

We are saying, “I can be pleased when…” thus passing the duty for our happiness to somebody or one thing else.

Don’t await one thing to occur so that you can be pleased. As a substitute, begin doing the issues that may make you content proper right here, proper now.

Takeaway: Happiness is a alternative you make on daily basis.

13 Priorities in Life You Must Focus On, RIGHT NOW

1. Self-care

Your before everything precedence in life needs to be YOU. 

Not in a egocentric and self-centered method, however with self-compassion and understanding.

Prioritizing self-care means investing in actions and habits that nurture the physique and thoughts.

As an example, you would begin a journal. Writing means that you can have interaction in self-discovery and meaningfully work together together with your inside self. Additionally it is a protected house to discover facets of your life that you just wouldn’t normally talk about with others. 

As for the physique, something from yoga and meditation to wholesome meals, a soothing therapeutic massage, or a heat bathtub will be a wonderful self-care apply.

By dedicating a portion of your time to self-care, you study to prioritize your self. 

Generally, it’s wholesome to place your wants earlier than others. 

2. Training and studying

In the event you intention in direction of private {and professional} progress, then training needs to be a prime precedence.

We all know that training and studying are the driving forces behind human progress.

Nonetheless, training isn’t a course of that takes place completely in tutorial contexts. The notion that college is for studying and work is the place you set your information into apply is a false impression, a limiting perception that forestalls you from attaining progress.

Studying is a steady course of wherein you anchor your self for the remainder of your life.

The second you assume you might have realized sufficient is the second you cease rising.

Take duty on your private {and professional} success by making training a precedence in life. 

3. Significant work

I’m certain you recognize the saying, “Do what you’re keen on, and you’ll by no means should work a day in your life.”

However even individuals who love what they do for a residing typically face hardships. Simply since you love your job doesn’t imply you go to the workplace every day with an enormous smile and welcome adversity with optimism and positivity. 

Doing significant work means dedicating your self to actions which can be intrinsically motivating. 

Whether or not you’re a contract employee, entrepreneur, worker, or CEO, work will take up a superb portion of your life, so be certain that to do one thing that brings genuine happiness.  

4. Thrilling hobbies

One other side that it’s best to prioritize – as a result of it contributes to a significant and flourishing life – are hobbies.

Realistically talking, not everybody can afford the posh of pursuing their dream job. When your mortgage is late and payments begin piling up in your kitchen counter, cash turns into an even bigger precedence than which means.   

Nonetheless, hobbies are a facet of your life you might have full management over. If, for some motive, you don’t have the means to concentrate on significant work, no less than ensure you spare a while for thrilling actions.

It doesn’t even should be costly. Numerous hobbies value little to no cash however can convey tons of pleasure.

Possibly you may even flip your hobbies into significant and worthwhile work.

Begin by on the lookout for one thing you’re keen on doing only for the sake of doing it, and make it a precedence. Try these weblog posts for concepts:

5. Fulfilling relationships

In 1938, Harvard researchers began the most important examine on longevity, well being, and happiness in human historical past.

The query that sparked this endeavor was easy: What elements contribute to an extended and pleased life?

It’s no shock that, after 80 years and hundreds of contributors, researchers found that fulfilling relationships are a predictor for lasting happiness and well being.

As Robert Waldinger (the examine’s fourth director) places it, “Caring for your physique is vital, however tending to your relationships is a type of self-care too. That, I feel, is the revelation.”

The standard of your life relies on the standard of your relationships. 

Make investments (emotionally) in those that care about you and let go of poisonous individuals earlier than they drag you down.

6. Alone time

“True belonging is the non secular apply of believing in and belonging to your self so deeply you could share your most genuine self with the world and discover sacredness in each being part of one thing and standing alone within the wilderness.” – Brené Brown.

When was the final time you hung out with your self?

And by ‘time with your self’, I imply no telephone, no TV, no music, no distractions, simply you and your ideas.

I consider spending time with your self will be disagreeable and empowering on the identical time. 

On the one hand, you would possibly uncover ideas, feelings, sensations, and self-sabotaging behaviors you’re not normally conscious of since you are distracted a lot of the day. 

Alternatively, immersing your self within the wilderness of your thoughts builds resilience and facilitates self-acceptance.

I feel all of us have to study to dwell with ourselves, no matter previous errors, current shortcomings, or future worries.

7. Journey

Seeing new locations that you’ve got solely examine in books or seen on TV, assembly individuals with distinctive life tales, and getting in contact with new cultures and traditions are solely a fraction of the attractive experiences that touring brings into your life.

The sense of novelty you expertise each time you go to a brand new place or nation makes touring a precedence for many who want to domesticate genuine happiness.  

This sense of novelty can massively enrich one’s expertise, broaden one’s perspective, and encourage new concepts. 

8. New experiences

Not everybody can afford to journey the world and go to unique locations yearly. Maybe cash is so tight that you just can not even afford a low-cost flight and a two-night keep in an Airbnb.

However that doesn’t imply it’s best to deprive your self of recent experiences. I’m certain there’s a spot in your metropolis or space the place you’ve by no means been. 

Or perhaps there’s a brand new ability you at all times wished to strive however by no means had the time for, or a brand new e book you wished to learn however at all times advised your self perhaps subsequent week.

Lengthy story quick, be certain that to prioritize new experiences that get you out of your consolation zone and provide help to broaden your view of the world (no less than sometimes).  

9. Happiness 

Though the priorities listed above converge towards happiness, we might argue that happiness—as an overarching purpose—is a precedence.

Begin every morning with the will to put money into one thing significant, and finish every day by itemizing what you’re grateful for. 

A purpose-driven life creates the general sense of happiness and achievement you expertise each time you ponder your life’s journey. 

On the identical time, if you happen to want to obtain sustainable happiness, you need to consciously select happiness on daily basis. 

10. Snicker Extra

Do you know {that a} three-year-old laughs 300 instances a day, whereas an grownup merely laughs 17 instances a day (if it even is that a lot and also you aren’t wholly caught up within the seriousness that’s life)? 

So why don’t you retain the physician away by making time to snigger extra every day? Laughter actually is the very best medication, and the advantages are plentiful.

Within the phrases of Catherine Rippenger Fenwick, “Your physique can not heal with out play. Your thoughts can not heal with out laughter. Your soul can not heal with out pleasure.” 

Laughing needs to be a precedence in your day due to it: 

11. Turn out to be Self-Conscious and Deal with Private Improvement 

You can not dwell an genuine life if you happen to don’t know who you’re, and you’ll’t know your self if you happen to don’t concentrate on private improvement and self-awareness. 

Trying inward is uncomfortable as a result of it’s simpler to disregard and conceal the ugly elements of ourselves that we see as weaknesses. But, there’s a profit to digging deep, dealing with your entire self, and sitting with and accepting what you’re, really feel, observe, and see. 

Training self-awareness doesn’t imply there is only one reality to simply accept. As a substitute, it’s essential steadiness inner self-awareness – the way you see your values, aspirations, reactions, and so on. – and exterior self-awareness – understanding how others see you. 

If you prioritize attending to know your self so you may develop as an individual, you study to: 

12. Apply Gratitude 

Lately, gratitude has turn out to be a buzzword. Whereas many buzzwords are simply that—a preferred development individuals comply with as a result of everybody else is doing it—gratitude is actual, particularly if you begin practising it and benefiting. 

Making gratitude a precedence means being grateful for what you might have and never specializing in what you don’t have. If you don’t always assume that you would be and do higher and that you would or ought to have XYZ, you understand that you’re a human being, not a human doing or having. 

Embrace gratitude (for as little as 5 minutes a day) in your every day life so you may really feel much less confused, sleep higher, really feel extra optimistic, cope higher with ache, and a lot extra. 

Probably the most important profit is that practising being grateful is straightforward. Listed here are a few concepts to get you began: 

13. Pay It Ahead 

If you domesticate an abundance mindset or a progress mindset, you consider there’s sufficient of every little thing on the earth—sufficient time, cash, choices, and assets—and you’re grateful for what you might have. 

So it follows that because you don’t have to preserve what you must your self since there’s sufficient, you give again to others, carry out random acts of kindness, and pay it ahead when and the place you may (with out anticipating something in return). 

Paying it ahead feels good, helps construct a way of group, and sparks hope. And it’s contagious – like a ripple impact. You throw one stone (or a pay-it-forward motion) into the pond, and it causes ripples (so others can study to pay it ahead, too). 

Pay it ahead by: 

Ultimate Ideas on Priorities in Life

As you in all probability realized by now, all of the priorities we’ve mentioned can enrich your life by giving it which means. 

Some specialists consider happiness and which means in life are the important thing components of well-being. Whereas happiness results in self-satisfying outcomes, which means results in self-transcending outcomes. [2]

In different phrases, we obtain well-being by way of experiences that generate a way of private achievement and have a higher significance than ourselves.

However nobody will create these alternatives for you.

That you must create them your self by setting clear objectives and priorities in life. 

And if you happen to’re on the lookout for assets on setting your priorities in life, take a look at these posts:

References

[1] E. Eckhaus and Z. Sheaffer, “Happiness Enrichment and Sustainable Happiness,” Utilized Analysis in High quality of Life, vol. 14, p. 1079–1097, 2018. 

[2] P. F. Jonah Li, Y. Joel Wong and R. C. Chao, “Happiness and which means in life: Distinctive, differential, and oblique associations with psychological well being,” Counselling Psychology Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 3-4, pp. 396-414, 2019. 

Alexander Draghici is a licensed Scientific Psychologist, CBT practitioner, and content material author for numerous psychological well being web sites. His work focuses primarily on methods designed to assist individuals handle and stop two of the commonest emotional issues – anxiousness and melancholy.