Simplify Your Priorities | The Discipline Blog

The more complicated your life is the more difficult it is to focus. When things are cumbersome and chaotic our brain wants to shut down. The same goes with priorities. As an exercise I would ask my life coaching clients to categorize and prioritize their life.

Bill (fictitious name) was a 37 year-old married man that was earning approximately 40K a year. He had no children. His major goals were to earn more money and be consistent managing his overall health (exercise daily and maintain good eating habits). He also wanted to maintain a good personal life with his family, wife and friends.

Bill was very ambitious and had established many goals. He was also a self-help junkie. He would buy just about every self-help book that was published, listen to dozens of CDs and attend endless seminars on success?this has been going on for years until he met me. We immediately put an end to purchasing self-help propaganda. It was time to put his knowledge to work and execute.

Bill?s major challenges were lousy time management and poor goal management. He wasted an enormous amount of time and set unrealistic goals without prioritizing his life, he also couldn?t hold himself accountable.

I coached Bill for about a year to resolve the issues. One of the first things we did was to simplify his priorities. His initial list had six different priorities to think about (see below).

Career / Business
? Real Estate Investment / Property Ownership
? Music
? Property Management 9 to 5 job

Health
? Weight lifting
? Cardiovascular
? Diet

Relationships
? Romantic / Wife
? Family
? Friends / Social Life

Recreation (Outlets)
? Travel / Mexico
? Motorcycle riding
? Fishing / Boating / Swimming

Personal Development
? Education
? Real Estate license renewal
? Certified Property Manager (CPM) certification
? Leadership / Management training / Communication skills
? Real Estate investment analysis
? Learn languages

Finances
? Financial net worth
? Savings for Real Estate
? Assets / Real Estate
? Emergency savings
? Retirement
? Vacation savings
? Vacation assets
? Debts
? Student loan
? Charity

Below is the simplified version with his three priorities and a bonus.

1. Money
? Real Estate investment / Property ownership
? Music
? Produce

? Property management 9 to 5 job
? Skills development
? Real Estate license renewal
? Certified Property Manager (CPM) certification
? Leadership / Management training / Communication skills
? Real Estate investment analysis

? Finances
? Financial net worth
? Savings for Real Estate
? Assets / Real Estate
? Emergency savings
? Retirement
? Debts (student loans, credit cards, etc.)
? Charity
? Vacation assets
? Savings

2. Health
? Weight management
? Daily exercise

3. Relationships
? Romantic /Wife
? Family
? Friends / Social life

Bonus ? Recreation (Bonus-Outlets)
? Travel / Mexico
? Motorcycle riding
? Fishing / Boating / Swimming

His life now revolved around three priorities: Money (includes career, business, skills development, finances, etc.). Money was chosen because all of his top activities involved making more money. Health included a good diet and exercise. Relationship (wife, family, friends, etc.). The bonus category was his reward when he accomplished his milestones on any given day. It?s much easier to remember 3 priorities + a bonus category (reward based on progress), then it is to clutter your brain. You have enough going on every day without introducing more chaos.

Harris Kern has 25+ years experience as a life and organization performance mentor, IT management consultant, speaker and author of over 30 books. To learn more about Mr. Kern visit: http://www.disciplinetheorganization.com for organization development, http://www.disciplinementor.com for life coaching and http://www.harriskern.com for IT consulting.

Source: http://www.disciplinementor.com/blog/?p=815

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