Get Your Priorities In Order.....Before It's Too Late

What are your Personal and Most-Important Priorities? 

Have you considered this question lately?  What are you focusing your time and energy on every day?  Are you achieving success and are you achieving the Goals that you have set for yourself?  Might you be in need of a Priority Re-Alignment to get you back on track and heading in the direction you want to go in?

Only you can answer this deeply personal question.  Only you know what your most important Goals and Objectives are!  Only you know whether or not you are succeeding in life and moving successfully closer to all you want to achieve every single day.

One thing is for sure: time is flying by.  We are not getting any younger.  If your daily efforts and activity is not in sync with your most important life goals and objectives - you will most likely not achieve them. 

Achieving Success

 If that is currently the case, immediate correction action is required.  Success will not happen by accident or default. 

Our Dreams and Most Important Personal Goals will not become reality unless we strategically make them happen; one step and one decision at a time. 

Consider the following:

1. Have you had deep in the recesses of your mind a strongly-held Personal Dream that you have never acted on?  Can you not get this Dream and Desire out of your head?  Is this a Dream that uplifts you, fills you with passion and energy, and you believe if pursued and achieved would make you more happy and fulfilled?  We only live once.  The majority of people fail to muster up the courage and personal initiative to make the decision to Pursue Their Dreams.  Are you merely one of the many who fail to act, take the risk, and pursue your dreams?  Or.....
2. Are your days worked according to a flexible and well-though-out Plan that is in alignment with the Goals you want to achieve?  Or are you not working according to any plan, always in reactive mode allowing others to dictate how you spend your time and on what you focus your finite energy?  No one plans to fail; they just fail to plan.  Sit down with a sheet of paper; clarify and write down what are the most important Goals and Objectives you want to achieve; and then translate those into a series of steps and actions you need to take every day.  Live and Work according to a Plan.  Make it Flexible; but make it strategically effective. 
3. Are you, by habit, doing things that drain you of your limited energy?  Things that bring you and increase your stress-levels?  Things that are harming your body and mind?  Life is Not Easy.  Managing Stress is Not Easy.  But, succumbing to the lure of bad habits that drain us physically, emotionally, and spiritually is a sure-fire way of loosing sight of our priorities and failing to achieve greatness.  Address these habits now; before it's too late.  Be honest; reach out and get help; and begin turning your life around.
4. Have you fallen into the me-first, only-me, strictly self-centered trap that many fall prey to?  Are you solely concerned with you?  Your needs and wants?  One of the Secrets of Successful People is that they make it their life-mission to help others; to help other People, Companies, and Organizations achieve greater Success and Happiness.  We are all part of Community.  We are not an island.  Alone we are limited; working together we can achieve great success.  We all need a Support Team.
5. Are you taking life and the positive aspects of that life for granted?  Do you not fully appreciate the following Blessings:

• Your Relative Health
• Your Family and Loved Ones
• Your ability to make a living and put Food on the Table for your and your Family
• The fact that you have Sufficient Shelter for you and your Family

How would your Life and Your Priorities Change tomorrow morning if today, as is always a possibility every day for every one of us, that:

You have just been diagnosed with Stage-Four Lung Cancer.  The Doctor says you will unfortunately most likely not live beyond six months.  How would this impact you and your Priorities?  What would you do?

Your Spouse or one of your Children has just been diagnosed with Stage-Four Lung Cancer. The Doctor says they will unfortunately most likely not live beyond six months. How would this impact you and your Priorities?  What would you do?

You have either just been fired from you job, or, in an accident, you been rendered incapable of continuing making a living doing what you have been trained to do and what you have been doing your entire adult life.  You are suddenly faced with the need to provide for you and your Family in the future but now with severely limited capacity to work.  How would this impact you and your Priorities?  What would you do?

These thoughts and considerations immediately put our lives in focus.  Give us the Clarity we have lacked.  They force us to suddenly cut through the fat.  The largess.  The unnecessary.  Then focus on only that which is important.  Live with Purpose.  Do not fail to appreciate all you have while at the same time striving to increase your success.  Live so that you have no regrets.

Again.....after have considered the above thoughts and considerations:

What are your Priorities?  What are your Goals?  What are you doing, every day, to make sure you Achieve Success?  What do you need to start, tomorrow, doing differently to increase the likelihood that your Dreams will be Fulfilled?

Future Uncertain

We, really, have no guarantee that we will be here tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next.

Our Future is Uncertain. We will run out of time. Eventually. The question and unknown variable is when.

The Reality of Life is that our Time Here is Limited and Finite.

We are So Lucky to even be here today!  Many, who we have known and loved, are already gone; with no more tomorrows. How many more tomorrows do we have? What would we do differently if you had a Date Certain when you will be parting ways with life as we know it? What if we had, beginning right now at this very moment and point in time, only 24 Hours To Live? One Week? One Year?

We sometimes live and act as though we do not fully grasp this reality and the ramifications.  Are we living with a Sense of Urgency and are we Passionately Pursuing all of the Personal Goals that we have set for ourselves ever single day that we are fortunate enough to be alive? Are we packing in the excitement, the challenge, the personal achievements, and great accomplishments which we consistently achieve every single day?

Or, are we living Passively? Reactively? Like we are just passengers who have no control over in which direction we are heading. Have we lost our focus? Our drive? Do we no longer have a core set of top priorities, goals, and objectives, that drive us and towards which we should be focusing all of our energy and time on every day? Have we lost our Passion?

Is there a personal dream you once had that you have since forgotten or just given up on as the years passed? Lost all hope and desire as a result of the everyday grind of life and the many obstacles that we periodically face which slow us down and leave us deflated? Have we decided to take the easier path with less challenge, less resistance, and requiring less commitment?

What are your Personal Priorities? What are the most important things to you? A very wise person once wrote to me that "We Devote Our Time, Energy, and Money Into What We Value The Most." Think about that just for a moment. What have you been focusing on these days? Are your actions in line with and fully supportive of all of your stated Priorities and your Personal Goals? Or, have you over time fallen prey to the superficial aspects and negative temptations of life and moved away from spending time where you should be?

If You, If We, are not absolutely Fired Up and Highly Motivated, we most certainly should be!  Life is Short. Our Days Are Finite. We are certainly not getting any younger.  When we look back at our lives at an older age our goal should be to be able to say "No Regrets" as opposed to "how much better would things have been if I did this or didn't do that."

What If (not out of the realm of possibility!)you received notification right now: your Future is No Longer Uncertain. You Have One Month To Live. Think about it.  Slowly.  Think hard about what your thought process would then be......  What would you do?  How would you feel?  Who would you call? 

On what, if you received the "Deadline" Notification stated above, and with your assumed newfound focus and clarity, would you begin spending your precious time?? What would you do differently tomorrow?  What would your five most important Personal Goals be to achieve during your remaining time?  What components of your life would you know label as "no longer a priority" considering your new knowledge of how much time you have remaining? 

My Message: We Should Focus Only On What is Important And A Priority To Us; We Should Shed The Rest.  And Get Moving.......Procrastination Is The Thief Of Time.......and We Have Only So Much (?)Time. 

Life: Health & Wealth

As I pondered the various possibilities for the Subject of this Blog Posting I planned on writing today I received a timely phone call from my Sister.  After my meaningful conversation with her the Subject and Theme that I wanted to write about today became very clear: "Health & Wealth."

Wealth is perceived and defined in a multitude of ways.  The definition is often dependent on each individuals uniqueness and own personal life experience, background, values, character, goals, and priorities.

Wikipedia defines "Wealth" as follows:

Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem.^[1] An individual, community, region or country that possesses an abundance of such possessions or resources is known as wealthy.
The concept of wealth is of significance in all areas of economics, especially development economics, yet the meaning of wealth is context-dependent and there is no universally agreed upon definition. Generally, economists define wealth as "anything of value" which captures both the subjective nature of the idea and the idea that it is not a fixed or static concept. Various definitions and concepts of wealth have been asserted by various individuals and in different contexts.^[2] Defining wealth can be a normative process with various ethical implications, since often wealth maximization is seen as a goal or is thought to be a normative principle of its own.^[3]

Wikipedia defines "Health" as follows:

Health is the level of functional and (or) metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person in mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to being free from illness, injury or pain (as in “good health” or “healthy”).^[1] The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its broader sense in 1946 as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."^[2][3] Although this definition has been subject to controversy, in particular as having a lack of operational value and the problem created by use of the word "complete", it remains the most enduring.

Many people spend their entire lives obsessed with and pursuing greater Wealth.  But at what point do we become Wealthy?  I am all for striving to make a good living beyond the basic necessities of daily living and working hard to be able to enjoy the betters things in life. 

But I wonder if sometimes people are not much more "Wealthy" than they appreciate and realize.  Life is not just about the accumulation of money, houses, and boats, etc.  These things are nice, very nice in fact, but, if you were sitting in a Hospital Room with a serious life-threatening disease you would suddenly have gained much greater perspective.  Money, a new house, a new boat, etc., would suddenly have moved down the "Ladder of Priorities" in your Life.   You would be thinking the following simple and clear thought: you would be praying that a miracle would be granted; and that you could go back in time to a point where you were in general, relative, Good Health. 

Consider this question:

• Are you Wealthy if you are Healthy? 

Today my Sister informed me during our telephone conversation that a Cousin of ours has just been just diagnosed with Melanoma; my Sister asked that we say a Prayer for her and keep her in our thoughts.  My Sister is a Nurse.  We do not know all of the details at this time other than the fact it sounds quite serious.  My Sister conveys that this is a serious disease that gives cause for concern and worry. 

My immediate thought upon hanging up: Life is So Short.  We Take Our Health For Granted.  Thank God For My Relative Good Health!  Kind of a selfish thought.

We will as requested Pray for our Cousin and keep her in our thoughts. 

Shortly after the conclusion of the conversation with my Sister I began thinking about and pondering the reality of our daily existence:

• Any one of us could, possibly, and at any time, receive a phone call informing us that one of our Family Members or close Friends has suffered great tragedy or been stricken ill.  Or even died.
• Any one of us could, possibly, and at any time, suffer great tragedy or become suddenly ill.  Seriously ill.  Or even die.

What if you received "the phone call" today about a Family Member or Friend or from a Doctor about your Health that would immediately change your Life forever?

The Prospect and Potential of this phone call for all of us always exists and will never go away.

I ask you and I the following logical questions to ponder in light of the undeniable fact that our continued healthy existence is by no means a guarantee and that life is so short:

Why do we take so much for granted?
Why do we not fully appreciate our relative good health to a much greater extent than we do?
Why do we not sacrifice more of our Time, Energy, and Money to help others - and there are many! - who have already been stricken ill and and really, really suffering and struggling on a daily basis due to poor health?
Why do we all, myself included, so often choose to make the wrong things priorities and focus on or complain about trivial, inconsequential, and in retrospect meaningless, matters on a daily basis?
Why do we sometimes go about our lives in a robotic manner?

Why do we not spend more quality time with our Family and loved ones?


Why do we not exercise more and follow healthier diets that are proven will increase our level of health and reduce the likelihood of suffering poor health and being stricken by disease?

I have known friends who have died young.  I have a friend with two very young children who is courageously battling ALS Disease (and embracing the opportunity to inspire others!)  Today I just learned I have a Cousin who is battling Melanoma. 

If you've been blessed with relative good health and have not thought about and truly appreciated this fact in a long time, I remind you not to take such things for granted.

If you are amongst the many battling a serious health issue: my thoughts and prayers are with you to give you strength and courage to battle on and to fight.

Consider again this question:

• Are you Wealthy if you are Healthy?  

I argue in many ways yes.

Considering the Wikipedia definition noted above would we consider Good Health to be a "Valuable Resource?"  You bet.  Without sufficient energy levels and a general feeling of good health it would be difficult for us to be able to live the life we desire and achieve the goals we set for ourselves. 

Good Health is truly and undoubtedly a Blessing that not everyone is fortunate enough to have. Let's not take relative Good Health for granted and be truly grateful every single day; at the same time let us not turn a blind and selfish eye to those who are suffering and in need.

It could be any one of us any day.  Carry that thought with you.  Every Day.

I Wish You Good Health And The Perspective And Ability To Appreciate It When You Have It!