2020 seemed to arrive with minimal fanfare and yet here we are, almost one quarter of the way through and it only seems to be picking up speed. Yikes!
As important as it is to look back to understand what has happened, and to appreciate the history of what got us where we are today, there is nothing more uncertain than the future. What our future is going to look like is something that we just don’t have the answer to, so how do we make it turn out close to what we envision. The answer to that is to know what you want your future to look like and the first step towards that understanding is to know what you want it to be.
If someone were to ask you today “What do you want the future to look like, what do you want to see happen”most of us would have a pretty standard response. Some might say “more time with friends and family” “a nice vacation”or“a profitable year for my business”and they are all good responses, they are meaningful. Is that all that you want to see happen in the future, have you truly given yourself the time to understand what you want the future to look like.
I would like to suggest that you set aside some time, possibly today after you finish this article and ask yourself two questions. The First question is “What is the most important thing in my life?”. Write down your thoughts to this question, whatever comes to mind and whatever comes from the heart and you’ll hopefully have more than one response. Many of us don’t give ourselves the time to think about what’s truly important to us and we walk around with the mind-set that what was important five years ago is still important today, and it may not be.
After writing down your thoughts go back over what you wrote and ask yourself the second question for each of your responses “Why is this so important to me?”and again, allow yourself to process what that means to each of the answers. The hope is that by doing so, you will realize that while all of these are important to you, there are a few that stand out from all the rest. We all have something that drives us, something that provides us the motivation to do what we do and that’s the beauty of knowing what matters most.
Knowing what matters most to you, what steps are you going to take to grow, nurture or work towards this new-found ideal? Knowing what matters most is a critical first step, but nothing happens until you give it the time and attention that it needs in order to happen.
How can you align your daily actions towards achieving your goals?Who do you need to have a conversation with to get where you want to be? What do you need to change in your life, so that you can accomplish what is most important to you? Where can you seek guidance and support to help make this a reality?
Every day we give our time and energy to our businesses and the people we care about and we want to make sure they have what they need from us. How much more could you give if you first took the time to make sure that what you need most of all is taken care of first. This doesn’t make you selfish, this allows you to be the best version of yourself for everyone in your life and provides a much stronger foundation from which to help everyone else.
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