A Coaching Power Tool created by Stacie Dickerson Cole
(Health and Wellness Coaching, UNITED STATES)
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
Goethe
Reading
What do people consider their priorities? If asked, they may say their kids, spouse, career, church, or something similar. What are they really talking about? They are talking about people or things they value. From a slightly different perspective, what if you asked an employee “What are your priorities this week?” The response would more than likely center around a list of action items related to his or her work. These would be the most important tasks at hand for the coming week.
So how do we define a priority?
Priority items have two elements present: a sense of urgency (time sensitive) and importance, (value). If you value your church, you consider it important and probably spend time being involved in the activities surrounding your church. If you have an important assignment due soon at work, you will probably make it a priority to work on it. It moves to the top of your “to-do list.”
What is something that is not a priority?
The opposite of a priority would be something that is neither important nor time sensitive. It is something you don’t care about or even think about. It’s not on your radar screen so you may not even have a name or description for it. It is insignificant to you.
How you spend your time is a reflection of your values and beliefs. A person’s values are his or her principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgement of what is important in life. If you believe something, you consider it to be true. So your beliefs are what you consider to be true about life. It’s your opinion or conviction. Your opinion is your perception of reality.
Self Application
Do you spend your time on the things most important to you? This is a very common human struggle. What happens when you say something is a priority, something you value, but you can’t seem to find time for it? Or let other things take precedence in the moment of choice? Let’s say, for instance, that you consider losing weight a priority. Your goal is to lose 20 pounds. But you can’t find time to get to the grocery store or cook at home. You are busy during the day so you grab a value mean from a fast food drive-thru. You didn’t exercise this week, or last week. Can you really call losing weight a priority? Does it mean it is insignificant to you? If it is important, then why the gap between intention and action? Is it not urgent enough? What makes it urgent? Why?