Getting your priorities right
The title of this article, More Work = Less Time Devoted to Finances and Less Blogging caught my attention as I was scouring pfblogs.org. The title inspired my own thoughts towards setting priorities in my own life as we all have the same 24 hours to work with.
I know people who can't manage getting their sorry butts of the couch and grabbing life with both hands and I also know people who can't slow down and 'smell the roses.' I'm sure we can all identify some acquaintance with either extreme.
We all need to realise that although our own dreams and aspirations motivate us, they don't naturally motivate those closest to us - or even near us. I suspect that if you were to ask bloggers (those who are blogging for profit) what their motivation was for spending their time doing this activity you would receive multiple and varied responses. In fact, it you were to give them a monetary earnings figure and then also include the personal cost many would want to change something about the deal. Some would be prepared to give more thus earning more while others would be happy to trade lower earnings for a smaller personal cost.
It all comes back to priorities. What is it that you want your life to be like? It can't all be 'beer and skittles' and it can't all be "all work and no play." Each of us have priority thresholds - benchmarks that we will consider trading but only if we can see some benefit to our over all lifestyle.
Many of us have loose priorities. We understand that family is important, we need a source of income and we need some recreation to relax. However, when push comes to shove we find priorities move and settle in some kind of semblance and suddenly expose our inner thoughts and directions.
Why do we need an income? Sure we need our basics but if that were all we needed we probably wouldn't have to work full-time jobs. A part-time job could easily secure these necessities and free up valuable time to spend living life the way we want to. However, if the way you want to live life requires more funds then you'll need to increase the hours you work - making the compromise of available leisure time.
Some priorities we have are real while many are perceived. We buy Christmas presents for everyone in our family including nieces and nephews and it costs a small mint. Why? Because we've always done it this way and our priority is to please those close to us. Could we change this practice? Sure. If it meant that our priority of pleasing family wasn't compromised we'd investigate it - and we have. Alas, to no avail.
Take some time to write out a list of your top 5 priorities and then ask yourself why they are in that order. If it changed, would life be better? Or, worse?
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Comments
Good post. I've found that when you ask people to "write down their priorities," what they really write is what they want their priorities to be or what they think their priorities should be. People's actions show what their priorities truly are. For example, someone might *say* that their priorities are family, work, and education, but when you observe their behavior, they spend several hours watching television each day and wake up late in the morning, not feeling motivation to work, and perhaps they see their parents only a few times out of the year.
It's one thing to write down one's priorities, as long as you understand what's being written is usually far from the truth, and more of an idealistic perception or wish.
Posted by: Flexo | June 10, 2006 12:42 PM
Well thought out comment Flexo. This is so true of many people especially those who seem to be stuck in some "rut" of life. Their priorities are inspiring but they are never acted upon.
It will be interesting to see who will actually use this information and put it into practice.
Posted by: Stu | June 10, 2006 3:24 PM