6 Tips for Getting Your Priorities Straight in 2016

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Jan. 12, 2016 - PRLog -- With the beginning of 2016 finally here, you’ve probably been swamped with mentions of resolutions and the “new year, new me” talk we all seem to get into with another complete trip around the sun. But before you can make all those big life changes you need to take stock of your priorities and where you are spending your time. “What we look for, what shifts towards our conscious mind, will present itself,” says Susan Sherbert, author of “A White Hat & Rose Colored Glasses.” She continues, “Put more of those kinds of activities on the top of your priority list. Once you start to look for things in alignment with what you want, the opportunities will begin to appear right before your very eyes.”

Whatever you make a priority is what your mind will seek out. How many times has someone tried to point out the reasons why we may be struggling or unhappy and given us advice, and we just won’t listen? Eventually awareness does happen, and once our priorities change we are now receptive to other options that would have been automatically ruled out before we had our major thought shift. Look for things that will help you get what you want, and you will find them.

Replace the squeaky wheel instead of greasing it. People respond to the tasks that make the most noise. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Is our time spent on the tasks that get us the results we want or are we exhausting ourselves responding to the things that demand our attention but are not really in line with our goals? Don’t reward distractions with a squirt of grease! Go out and get a new and improved wheel that will get you to your destination without all of the drama.

If it’s important - make it a priority. Responsibility, work, time, and money are all major factors in the grown up world. Money must be made, there are things to buy, bills to be paid. As a result, fun gets pushed aside. On those infrequent occasions that we do allow ourselves to embrace our passions and lose ourselves in the now, our brains are finally given the opportunity to forget about all that stress and worry. That means for those rare moments, time and money become meaningless and we temporarily allow ourselves to leave anxieties and troubles behind. So take time for yourself – you and your health are just as important as the bills.

Let positive emotions linger – they need more time to grow. Negative emotions elicit a quick response. We are in danger, or think we are in danger, we must act now! We tend not to react forcefully and immediately to positive emotions because they are not a threat, therefore negative emotions get all the attention. If we want to attract more positive results and maintain the visions of our future, then we need to give our good emotions time to develop and space to settle in - confident thoughts and feelings need time to linger. Welcome positive feelings and encourage them to stay a while - now imagine how quickly we could change the direction of our lives if large portions of our thoughts were about positive possibilities!

Commit to adding some good times to your hectic schedule. Do you really want your priorities to be all about staying busy or are there other things that should have a higher significance in your life? It’s all about awareness, but we must first get out of that automatic “don’t think, just keep going behavior.” Become aware that you are creating the hectic schedules that you think you must follow, and set some time aside for yourself.

Being busy can send the message that we don’t care. Being busy becomes a way of life for some, and this is dangerous because being busy can also send the message that we don’t care. We are often not even aware of this because we are too busy to notice. Our priorities have changed so that we like the feeling of getting things done and hopefully making more money for our efforts. Plus, we all know that when something is important to us, we can always find the time, and the money for the things we put at the top of our priority list. The things we value are the things we get done. Look at what you’re finishing and spending money on – is it what you want?

When you take the time to examine your thoughts and actions, you will find what you are actually putting importance on. Get your priorities right and start checking off those resolutions!

   Susan Sherbert is the author of “A White Hat & Rose Colored Glasses” (http://www.awhitehat.com) – the innovative new guide to rediscovering the fearlessness and creativity of childhood and how to apply it in your “adult” world. Susan is a business owner, humor columnist, and the author of a Sliver Award-winning monthly newsletter for over 12 years. Today, she uses her writing and platform to teach others the value of child-like thinking to live dreams and change lives.