Making Time for What's Important to You

Today is Monday, the start of a new week. What are some things that you personally want to accomplish this week and how can you make sure that they get done? It can be so easy to start a new week with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and purpose only to let the days slip by until the week is over and you find that you haven’t done really anything you wanted.

Here's one way you can have a more gratifying and fulfilling week. Make a list of the 5 most important things you want to get done. The key here is that you get to define what is meant by important. Important could be a project at work or important could be your child’s soccer or baseball game. Important could be a picnic with your significant other or it could be volunteering at upcoming street fair in your neighborhood. Important in this exercise means something that excites you and gives you energy.

Once you have created your list and marked off the required times on your calendar, put one copy of your list on your refrigerator, one somewhere near your desk and put the last copy on the mirror in your bathroom. This way, the list is the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see at night. It is a gentle reminder that these are the projects and events you prioritized as important to complete.

As the week goes by, observe how you are doing. Are you on course or are other responsibilities and unexpected events getting in your way? If you are on course, give yourself pat on the back. You have chosen things that obviously are important to you and you have made a commitment to make sure you complete them.

If you have fallen off course, chances are you didn’t choose things that really jazzed you. The items you chose may be important in the greater scheme of life, but they don’t hold enough energy for you to truly care about doing them. And it is very hard to succeed at things we don’t have fun doing.

If that happens, don’t beat yourself up. Start again next Monday and give yourself permission to choose things that are truly important to you. You know what you care about. This is your life. Don’t let the pressures of the outside world steer you off course.

Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness. Shakti Gawain