Whose Priorities Are These?
We live our life according to certain priorities. What feels most important is what will get done and be focussed on. The problem is, we usually don’t intentionally cultivate these priorities. And when you don’t intentionally cultivate priorities, other default ones naturally take over.
For example, if I ask myself what my highest priorities are, I would say, 1) My Health, 2) My family and 3) Work. And yet, if I don’t stay intentional, it is very easy for the work priority to overtake the health and family priorities. Many days it is far easier to stay at work and get a bit more paperwork caught up then it is to get outside and go for a walk or run.
If we aren’t paying attention, it can also be easy for other people’s priorities to start taking over. That committee you aren’t really interested in, the meeting you feel you have no choice but to attend instead of being home, the fast food lunch you eat so you can get back to work faster. These are all ways that someone else’s priorities can eat away at our own.
Actions Vs Priorities
When we attend to other priorities than what is truly most important to us, it means our actions aren’t aligning with our core values. This is a state that creates stress and discomfort. You may not notice why you feel unsettled, but may end up eating to manage this discomfort. Or maybe you experience the “two voices”. One voice telling you what you “should do” to honour your priorities and the other voice suggesting a simpler route that goes in the opposite direction.
If your priority is to get your work done each day, the other voice may suggest just leaving it today and catching up tomorrow.
If the priority is to lose weight or eat healthier, the other voice may be suggesting junk food or sweets in the evening.
We Have To Go Back To The Basics
The problem is that we usually try to put our priorities into our schedule after all the other things have been entered. We schedule work, the kids activities, meetings and then try to figure out how we will have time to make healthy meals each day or get some exercise. This is overwhelming and feels exhausting.
A better way is to start with your personal priorities. If you want to lose weight and this is a major priority for you, then start your schedule by planning time for meal prep, eating healthy meals and grocery shopping. If having good quality time with the kids is a priority, then plan when you are are going to spend time with the kids and put that into your schedule first. Then fill all the other stuff around.
This may seem like it is impossible or too much work, but it honestly takes less time than you would think to focus on your own priorities. And in general, all that time is an investment in better energy, focus and efficiency with your other tasks for the week.
Click below to listen to this week’s episode about how to make sure your actions are aligning with what is most important to you.
Imagine Life without Binge or Stress Eating
You can learn to stop with ease and without relying on willpower. I teach my coaching clients how to truly understand binge or stress eating and treat the core reasons for the eating. When you address these reasons with simple changes, the urge to overeat fades away. Imagine realizing that the tempting food in your house is still there and you just never thought about eating it!
To learn how coaching could change your relationship with eating and let you leave the struggle behind, book your free introductory session below.
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