HI-PRI — WHAT’S IMPORTANT

Priorities, an interesting word which means the fact or condition of being regarded or treated as more important.

We see this word many places, but it seems to bubble up more during the holidays and to move into a new year.

Priority passes.

Priority seating.

Priority packaging.

Priorities for the coming season.

Many times we “layout” our priorities.

Many times we “make them official.”

Many times we call something a “top” priority that has status over everything else.

Or someone lays them out or delivers them to us.

We also ask the question “am I a priority in another person’s life? Are they in mine?”

What are my “priorities” for the new year?

For the new project?

For our lives?

We often make excuses about what we have called a priority, saying there’s not enough time, we are too busy.

Turning said priority into an option, which is something then you don’t necessarily have to do or pay attention to.

I don’t believe in resolutions, so I don’t make them. But I do make a list of priorities for the new year, and a plan to reach them and I appreciate when other people do as well. And I pick a word for the year, this year it is Focus.

I do detest spreadsheets, work back schedules, and to-do lists.

But I am a planner and producer of things, and they are necessary, and I live by them and my trust calendars, yes plural. Analog and digital.

I love the quote by Mahatma Gandhi, “Action expresses priorities.”

To me, that is the thing.

What we do every day, the ACTIONS not just on the first day of the year or in January is what (or who) are priorities in your life. And those come from understanding your why, why you get up out of bed and then how you express that why.

Talking about something, writing it down on a piece of a paper and burning it is lovely and symbolic way to let things go if you so choose, I’m a fan of that flame.

But then the action, the motion, the doing of what is next is the way to make a priority something that is obtainable.

My little list of priorities not just for this year but for all the time and in no particular order:

Live in the moment

Write every day

Listen deeply

Honesty first

Love fiercely in all ways

Accept everyone for who they are

Be brave

Choose the scary thing

Feel the feelings

Trust the heart and gut

Sleep

Know when the end is okay

Wander often

Be a spark

Smooch and hug a lot

Make decisions, make more

Develop good habits in body and mind; one little thing can change everything

Fail often, learn, move on

Collect and keep good people

Find rituals and enjoy them

Focus, focus, focus

Walk on the beach

Learn every day

Read good books in copious amounts

Become fluent in Spanish

Learn to play the guitar

Never be satisfied

When something isn’t good, change it immediately

Own the mess ups, apologize quickly

Never dim the light (unless it makes the mood right)

Laugh first, cry when necessary

Don’t forget but forgive and move on

Understand its usually about them and not you

Be fabulous; it’s okay to be, it’s expected, the universe demands it

Time and good health are things you never get back

Meditate

Serendipity and magic are real

Be unstoppable

Dance, Dance, Dance

Make Art

Remember in all things empathy makes us human; actions make us warriors

Be a warrior every day

Okay, that’s enough, more than enough.

Heather, how can all these things be your priorities?

Easy, they simply are, and some more important than others.

What are your priorities, for all time, for today?

See I’m a list maker at heart.

When you write things down, that is the first action.

The next is what you make of it.

To be a little Napoleon Hill about it, choose the one burning desire or idea you have and be relentless about it. To me that is the secret. That is one’s ultimate priority.