5 Simple Steps to Prioritizing Your Goals
Prioritizing goals, which one to work on first!
Now isn’t that the million-dollar question!
You have your list of goals, and you’re staring at this long list just to figure out what to work on first.
You’ve created this excellent list of goals that you would like to incorporate into your life, but you start to feel overwhelmed as you go over this list.
Take a deep breath. You are only going to work on one goal at a time. So your list may be long, but your daily tasks will not be.
So now that you have your list of goals, you are probably thinking, where do I start, how do I begin, when do I start.
Here I will give you tips on how to figure out how to prioritize your goals. Now, since there is no one way to figure out what to work on first, I will give you a few ways to help you decide which goal to work on. First, consider your lifestyle in any circumstances that are going on at this time.
For example, a month ago, my circumstances had changed. I had a family member in the hospital, and my son had surgery on his mouth. The main goal that I was working on got put to the side to be there for my family. The plans that I was able to continue with during this time were exercising, eating healthy.
Even though I said exercising, I did have to change up some. Instead of working out at home in the morning, when I was at the hospital with a relative, I made sure I walked around the hospital and got in my 5 miles. In addition, I lowered the number of days I exercised last week to accommodate going to the dentist’s office and the hospital.
So it’s essential that you take a look at your life and circumstances and then decide which goal would be best for you to work on at this time.
1. Prioritize Goals
Create a list of goals and rank them in order of importance. Prioritize your goals! It does not mean this is the order you will work on; it just means this is what you would like to work on first. So prioritize your goals in order of importance to your life.
Tools to Help You:
2. Which Prioritized Goal is Manageable
Take an honest look at your life, especially if your life is busy, chaotic, and overwhelming. Figure out which goal would be most manageable for you to work on and accomplish right now. This will help to build confidence in yourself and create habits.
Along this journey of change, you want to make sure that you are building yourself up by creating little when and rewarding yourself. Just know you do not have to do the hard stuff all the time. Sometimes is necessary to do something small and easy just to give yourself that boost and know yes, there is something that you can complete.
So you may want to start by picking an easy goal to work on and complete.
3. Consider Your Availability
What time do you have available to work on your goals? You may have to create a schedule, look at the hours you spend working and doing things, and have an overall picture of time available.
This is important, especially if your life is busy or you need a quick win. Sometimes because of how our lives change with each season of the year, we may need to do quick wins for our lives to move forward.
For example, you may be a teacher, and each season brings change. In the summer, you may have more time to work on things, whereas the fall may be busy, and if you’re like most teachers, you’re busy before school, during school, after school, and even at times on the weekends. Then you may also have two weeks off for Christmas to where you may or may not want to work on goals, or that may be a time for those quick wins to accomplish things and move your life forward.
So this is what I mean when you may need to work on small goals that will give you those quick wins in a very time constraint season of your life.
4. Which Goals are a Must
Decide which goals are a must. You know the ones you do not have a choice but to work on and get it done. Consider it an emergency goal because life depends on this.
For example, one of the goals that I am working on is my overall health. I had a ct scan of all of my organs done, and my doctor updated me on each’s condition. A little backstory is for years; I lived in traumatic situations, and I went from one trauma circumstance to another without dealing with it, and my life was always highly stressful.
So living a highly stressful life all those years takes a toll on an individual’s organs and took a toll on me as well. So this one thing that I have been working on takes top priority over all of my other goals. And my health goals are not optional.
When you look over your list of prioritized goals, which goal/s are a must; one that you must work on to either accomplish or incorporate it in your life for whatever reason. You may want to make that your first to work on; depending on the situation, you may want to make that your starting point.
5. Develop Necessary Skills
Think about whether or not you will need to develop a skill to implement a goal successfully. For example, if your goal is to work on boundaries, you may need to develop coping skills, deep breathing, and relaxation skills first. Putting up boundaries can cause anxiety, so developing those skills first will be necessary.
In conclusion, prioritize your goals. Decide if you have time to implement specific goals or start with an easy goal. Choose a time during your week when you can work on your goals. Look at your goals and determine if you have any that need immediate attention. Make sure that you develop any necessary skills to implement your goals successfully.
Don’t give up on your goals. If necessary, find a small goal to work on.
Keep moving forward.