Your Personality Productivity Platform 4. Priorities

It may be hard to admit but we are finite and we don’t have forever. Bummer.

Once we accept those premises, however, it inevitably leads to several implications, including this: we can live a more effective (and efficient, as it turns out) life when we sort out what matters most to us and act to take care of those things by the choices we make and actions we take.

Priorities, even when we change them over time, allow us to see and navigate our world towards the future we want to have. Connected to our priorities, now we can commit to act. Perhaps now we must act because we take our own word seriously. Our mindful actions reflect our priorities and values, our intention to bend the world towards our preferred future. No guarantees how life will turn out, just the imprint of our priorities in action.

I’m not that efficient in what I do. I’m sure that contributes to my having more to do than the time I have to get it done. When I set priorities, I at least get to attend to what I have declared to be more/most important to me. To make this happen, I organize my attention according to different areas of interest, such as health/vitality, learning, family/friends, etc. You get the picture. With a domain scaled down, it seems manageable to design what games I want to play and where to focus next. I now have several wonderful games I am playing that support things meaningful and purposeful to me:

I accepted an invitation last year from my colleague/friend Mariano to play as a founding board member and juror for the CK Prahalad Awards for social innovation, part of the Kaufman Center. This supports my priority to make the world a better place. Launched last month, jurors are seeking worthy candidates. I have been cultivating a collegial relationship with an entrepreneur in Nairobi whose company will be a strong award applicant.

Due to the pandemic last year, I was unable to attend the health club. Though I cancelled my membership, my priority for my well-being hadn’t changed. I had to rethink how I would express that commitment. My solution: buy dumbbells, exercise straps and an elliptical machine. Swap coaching with my friend Edy so we each stay on course with our games. Establish an exercise routine that includes walking outside, pushups and equipment-enabled exercise. Every day I get to choose to act on this priority. The practice, and I, are a work in progress.

With coaching clients who are becoming clear about their priorities, we create games to play that foster focus, intention and a lightness of being. (There’s no substitute for bringing a positive mood and appreciative attitude to the party.) We spend time in the question of purpose and higher purpose, a powerful context for generating meaning and crystallizing priorities. Often, the games we establish are strategic in nature. They require a different, higher perspective. They can align functional and organizational priorities and goals, identifying opportunities for collaboration. They demand focus, discernment, discipline and resilience to play well and learn from every experience. Priority must always include a possibility for learning and adaptability. Grow or die.

What are your highest priorities? What are the values that support and energize them? How have they changed, if at all, in the past year? What is their current expression? What are you learning and applying along the way? What have you learned about yourself?

Can you share and be seen? Add your contribution to the stone soup we are cooking together? Please gather around the fire. Join the circle.

 #selfleadership #designyourlife #priorities