Get your priorities right

How to get priorities right!

Get a bit of paper and divide it into three columns.

At the top the first column write the words 'I should....'.

Then in that column write down all the things that you feel you should be doing. The list can be as long or as short as you like. Look at your list and rearrange them in order starting with the most pressing, the ones that you have the most trouble sticking to.

Then, beside each 'I should...' statements, ask yourself 'Why?'

and write down the answer in the second column.

Then for each Should statement ask yourself 'Says Who?'

and write the answer in the third column.

Doing this exercise will let you find the basic drivers of your own behavior.

The 'Says Who?' column will challenge your assumptions about what you think you must do. Examining your own answers might show you how you have been trained to believe certain things that can now see just aren't true.

Now go through the list again, but this time rewrite all statements in the form 'I COULD....', and decide how much priority to give to each one.

Changing shoulds into coulds will target exactly the things in your life that you need to work on, and let you ignore the stuff that really is someone else's problem.