{"id":2325,"date":"2020-10-21T18:53:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T18:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=2325"},"modified":"2020-10-21T18:53:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T18:53:37","slug":"how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Create A Life That Reflects Your Priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"priorities\"<\/a>Many people mistakenly seek to live a \u201cbalanced life.\u201d\u00a0 They believe that a balanced life will lead to greater happiness.\u00a0 The problem is that if you live a balanced life, roughly everything in your life gets equal time.\u00a0 However, not everything in your life is equally important.\u00a0 As a result, to be truly happy, you instead need to focus on your priorities.<\/p>\n

By focusing on our priorities, we are able to structure our lives so that our time is spent on those things that are most important to us.\u00a0 Below are ways to create a life that reflects your top priorities.<\/p>\n

Choose Your Priorities Based on the Season of Your Life<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Our lives have seasons.\u00a0 For example, for the last 18 years, I have been in the season of being a fulltime mother.\u00a0 However, that season recently ended when my daughter went to college.\u00a0 Now my parenting consists of text messages and the occasional late-night phone call.<\/p>\n

Before my daughter left for college, for 18 years she was my #1 priority.\u00a0 Everything else, from my career to my other relationships, took a backseat to her.\u00a0 And that was the right approach for me.\u00a0 During that period, my top priority was to be a mother.<\/p>\n

But now my season of fulltime motherhood has ended, and I am resetting my priorities.\u00a0 Of course, I now could make my husband my top priority.\u00a0 However, that amount of my attention would drive him up a wall!\u00a0 So, my current priority is my writing career.<\/p>\n

It is the right season to give more attention to my writing.\u00a0 I have more time these days to think.\u00a0 I also have a lot of life experience under my belt, and some hard-earned wisdom that I can share!<\/p>\n

So, realize that life has its seasons, and you should set your priorities accordingly.\u00a0 When we are young, we should focus on our education and our careers.\u00a0 Later on, we might focus on family.\u00a0 Our priorities naturally evolve as our lives change.<\/p>\n

Accept That You Can\u2019t Have It All<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There is no such thing as having it all.\u00a0 Each day has only 24 hours, and we can only accomplish so much during that time.\u00a0 So, when you focus on your priorities, you need to accept the consequences of that choice.<\/p>\n

For example, I could have spent the last 18 years attacking a career.\u00a0 Would I be further along professionally if I\u2019d made my career my top priority for the last 18 years?\u00a0 Of course.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t mind being less far along than I could be.\u00a0 From my point of view, the last 18 years were for my daughter.\u00a0 It was my season to be a mother.<\/p>\n

So, set your priorities and accept that there will be sacrifices.\u00a0 If you want to have an amazing career, your social life won\u2019t be as vibrant.\u00a0 If you want to be an amazing homemaker and cook and decorate at the level of Martha Stewart, then you will have a less high-powered career.<\/p>\n

However, it is far better to pick what is truly important to you and do it well<\/em>, rather than to do a bunch of things in an average manner.\u00a0 Give the few things that are important to you your full attention and do them to the best of your ability.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Let Others Choose Your Priorities<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It is critical to choose the priorities that are most important to you<\/em>.\u00a0 For instance, some people may tell you that pursuing a high-level job should be your priority.\u00a0 But your desire may be to care for your children or for an elderly parent.\u00a0 If that is the case, pursue a less demanding career so that you have more free time to care for family members.\u00a0 In that way, your life will reflect what is most important to you.<\/p>\n

And make sure to respect the priorities of others, even if they differ from your own.\u00a0 For instance, when my husband asked me to marry him, I made very clear that raising my daughter was my top priority.\u00a0 His response was, \u201cYou are a mother.\u00a0 Of course, your daughter is your top priority.\u201d\u00a0 My husband had no desire to dictate what my life priorities should be, or how I should spend my time.<\/p>\n

By contrast, my husband\u2019s top priority is his career.\u00a0 And I support him in that!\u00a0 We don\u2019t have the same priorities.\u00a0 But we respect and appreciate each other\u2019s priorities, which is far more important.\u00a0 And we give each other the freedom to do what we each need to do to be happy.<\/p>\n

So, follow your heart when setting your priorities.\u00a0 And allow others to do the same!<\/p>\n

When Your Life and Priorities Align, Your Life Flows<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When your life reflects what is most important to you, then your life works<\/em>.\u00a0 It flows.\u00a0 Your days have purpose and meaning because you are doing what you are meant to be doing.\u00a0 Your time isn\u2019t being wasted doing things that don\u2019t matter to you.<\/p>\n

For instance, being a housewife will not work for you if pursuing a career is your dream.\u00a0 If you instead try to run a house and raise children fulltime, but you will be frustrated.\u00a0 You won\u2019t do the job well because homemaking isn\u2019t important to you.\u00a0 Your life won\u2019t flow because you will be spending your time doing things that simply don\u2019t matter to you.<\/p>\n

When you do what matters most to you, your life feels right.\u00a0 You feel like your time is being spent on what you truly care about, and your life will reflect your top priorities.<\/p>\n

So, to be happy, set your priorities!\u00a0 Figure out what is most important to you.\u00a0 And then create a life that focuses on those priorities.\u00a0 If you do, your life will flow, and you will be so much happier.<\/p>\n

Email: meerabelle@meerabelledey.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

To receive my free e-book, “The Confidence Course,” and my weekly newsletter, visit meerabelledey.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people mistakenly seek to live a \u201cbalanced life.\u201d\u00a0 They believe that a balanced life will lead to greater happiness.\u00a0 The problem is that if you live a balanced life, roughly everything in your life gets equal time.\u00a0 However, not everything in your life is equally important.\u00a0 As a result, to be truly happy, you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Create A Life That Reflects Your Priorities - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To be happy, our lives need to reflect our priorities. Learn how to live a life in which you spend time on what it most important to you.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Create A Life That Reflects Your Priorities - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To be happy, our lives need to reflect our priorities. Learn how to live a life in which you spend time on what it most important to you.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-21T18:53:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/390\/2020\/10\/pexels-katie-e-3662773-367x550.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Meerabelle Dey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Create A Life That Reflects Your Priorities - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","description":"To be happy, our lives need to reflect our priorities. Learn how to live a life in which you spend time on what it most important to you.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to Create A Life That Reflects Your Priorities - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","og_description":"To be happy, our lives need to reflect our priorities. Learn how to live a life in which you spend time on what it most important to you.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html","og_site_name":"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","article_published_time":"2020-10-21T18:53:37+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/390\/2020\/10\/pexels-katie-e-3662773-367x550.png"}],"author":"Meerabelle Dey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html","name":"How to Create A Life That Reflects Your Priorities - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/390\/2020\/10\/pexels-katie-e-3662773-367x550.png","datePublished":"2020-10-21T18:53:37+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-21T18:53:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#\/schema\/person\/7250ab2fc75dd2e7e923fbec0fbb375c"},"description":"To be happy, our lives need to reflect our priorities. Learn how to live a life in which you spend time on what it most important to you.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/390\/2020\/10\/pexels-katie-e-3662773-367x550.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/390\/2020\/10\/pexels-katie-e-3662773-367x550.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2020\/10\/how-to-create-a-life-that-reflects-your-priorities.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to Create A Life That Reflects Your Priorities"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/","name":"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Meerabelle Dey","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/#\/schema\/person\/7250ab2fc75dd2e7e923fbec0fbb375c","name":"Meerabelle Dey","description":"Meerabelle Dey has a B.A. in History and Religious Studies from the University of Toronto and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. Much of her legal career has been spent dealing with issues affecting women, children and the poor. She has lived in the United States, Canada and the Middle East. Meerabelle now devotes her time to writing. Her mission is to use her writing to inspire others to achieve God\u2019s unique purpose for their life.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/author\/mdey"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/593"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2331,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions\/2331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}