Who and What Truly Matters?

from zenhabits.net

In my life I've gone through periods of driven productivity - times when everything just fell into place and all my goals just seemed to accomplish themselves. On another extreme, there have also been times when I've been completely overwhelmed, burdened by projects and responsibilities - frustrated not only because they challenged me, but they just didn't matter to me. There are days when I ask myself, how the hell did I end up here? How did I end up working on things that aren't who I am, and don't represent where I'm going?

Some things are extremely important to us, some that matter little - and some that don't matter at all. Here's a guide that may help - they discuss how to define and focus on what truly matters.

Break it down: The questions are a little deeper than we may expect, but when you take the time and patience to answer them - you might just be a bit thankful...

1. What does my life look like 10 years from now? Mentally time travel to the picture of where you want to be. This whole idea is even more apparent especially when you consider that we are after all, the product of where we came from. People, memories, and events have all shaped us into the person we are today. Similarly, looking 10 years down the road and imagining what we want helps us focus our energies today to make it happen tomorrow. If my future dreams are filled with me working hard and being successful - then that tells me that I need to focus on maintaining that diligence today.

2. What is my purpose? All of us have a mission in life. If we've determined our life's mission, it builds a foundation of where we should be spending our time. This may not be an easy one to answer because sometimes we believe that our life's purpose isn't in line with a "practical career" - but I disagree. There's no contradiction in using a career to pull ourselves from debts so we can be free for adventure etc... However there can be a disconnection because no matter how much money we make - it's not the most important to us.

3. What excites me? Sometimes we're a little scared to admit to ourselves what we really want to do, and who we really want to be because it's not popular, or it's not secure with the job that we already have. Deep down - we know what excited us. We know what gets our heart pumping, and what gets us to jump out of bed in the morning.

4. What can I let slide? There are never enough hours in a day to do everything - absolutely everything - that we have some interest in doing. There is, however, enough time in a day to do things that we are truly interested in, and that truly matters. Find what you can to let slide - then let it.

5. Do the consequences have meaning? All tasks and projects have consequences and outcomes. But the consequences, in and of themselves - don't even matter. What really matters, is what they mean to us. We fight, claw, and struggle down a path because others want us to see the rewards at the end, or simply because the reward itself sounds impressive. But if they don't mean anything to us, how can we be satisfied with what we accomplished? If something doesn't mean anything - regardless of how important it may be to others, or the impression it had made in the past - it's a sign to let it go.

Making Time: So the last questions dealt with finding out what truly matters in our lives - now the only thing to do is to make time for them. Here are some tips...

1. Do it first. Pick your three most important tasks (MITs) and do them first thing in the morning. Once you find what really matters, try taking care of it first before spending time on tasks that matter less to you. This method has been proven to significantly raise productivity in people. When you deal with your own goals in the morning before anything else, it's a nice positive start for the day and gets you line for what's next.

2. Schedule it in. Treat all the important appointments (like family) with the seriousness you would anything else in your life. It's a commitment to the future and what truly matters.

3. Treat it as an emergency. 'My life is booked back and forth with commitments - but when I had to go to the hospital to treat my appendicitis, none of my tasks got checked off for that day.' If we have trouble letting things slide, or aren't sure how to make time, then consider treating our life mission as an emergency. Let go of some important but unnecessary items off the schedule for the day. Spending each day on tasks that don't even matter are the days we can't recover - to me, that's an emergency.

We all know deep down there are different things that drive us - hobbies that excite us, passions we wish we had more time to explore, people we could spend more time with. I believe that identifying, focusing on, what matters to us isn't just an exercise.

Focusing on what truly matters, truly matters.

M.