10 Steps to Setting Smart Priorities

How to Set Priorities and Live the Life You Love

As a life and wellness coach, I have worked with thousands of individuals worldwide to help them to uncover their authentic selves and to learn to create balance and success in their personal and professional lives.

As a first step, I believe we need to take a moment to think through what our life’s big-picture priorities are. Then, we can move toward manifesting our goals and making our dreams real.

Keep clicking for my step-by-step guide to create a strong and healthy foundation on which to move forward, setting smart priorities, and create a life we can love!

Janice Taylor is the author of the Our Lady of Weight Loss blog on Beliefnet, and the book, All is Forgiven, Move On.

Mine Your Inner Resources

We are born into this world rich in natural resources. Our inner resources are our personal batteries of positive traits that can help us achieve, manifest, and create whatever it is that we want, including the health, body, state of mind that we wish for and need.

These naturally occurring inner resources are valuable. Getting in touch with yours will open up new vistas of possibility and give you an opportunity to view yourself from a new place. We are much like gold-miners. And if we look carefully enough, we are guaranteed to hit gold.

Here are some inner resources. How many apply to you? Courage * Acceptance * Caring * Humility * Reliability * Joy * Abundance * Curiosity * Creativity * Harmony * Wonderment * Control * Commitment * Supportive * Passionate * Connectedness * Kindness * Sense of Humor * Compassion * Faith * Patience * Independence * Wisdom * Powerful * Empowered * Trustworthy * Understanding * Playful * Light * Intelligence * Integrity * Enthusiasm * Sense of Humor

Rank Your Life Categories

Prioritize the following life categories in the order that they are most important to you. On a scale of 0 to 10, 10 being the highest, how important is each life category to you? This exercise will highlight where you want to begin making change.

1. Home – How important is the aesthetic of your physical environment to you? 0 to 10: ____

2. Adventure – Do you yearn to stretch your boundaries, stepping out of your comfort zone? 0 to 10: ____

3. Creativity – Creativity means different things to different people. It’s not just about drawing; it’s how you live your life. It’s about putting your imagination, originality and imagination to work! 0 to 10: ____

4. Fun – Seriously, how often do you even think about how you might incorporate fun into your life? 0 to 10: ____

5. Feeding the Mind – Do you read or write, think, or have deep conversations with others? 0 to 10: ____

6. Relationships – How important is it to spend meaningful time with your friends and family? Are your relationships what you want them to be? 0 to 10: ____

7. Spirituality – How important is it to you to be connected to a higher power? To find purpose in your life? 0 to 10: ____

8. Money – How much money do you need to life a life you love? Are you comfortable with your finances? 0 to 10: ____

9. Work/Career – Whether you are working for pay or not, it is important to do ‘something.’ Are you happy with the way in which you spend your day? 0 to 10: ____

10. Health – How important is your health (mental, physical and emotional) to you? 0 to 10: ____

Celebrate Failure

If you suffer from fear of failure, fear not! You are not alone. It is the number one killer of grand plans and great schemes. In all likelihood it started when you were young; you failed at something, maybe got a big fat "F" in school, or failed to get on the cheerleading squad. Who knows what you failed at, but you did ... we all did ... and some of us soaked in those feelings from failure and decided consciously or unconsciously in that snapshot of a moment, on a deep level, to protect ourselves at all costs.

And so I say to you today, let's turn that all around and CELEBRATE failure! Failure is a sign that you are moving forward and pushing your boundaries. Good for you!