It's all about priorities!

More often than not, I have seen that the most successful and happy people are the ones who have got their priorities right. After all, life is all about priorities. Setting your goals, prioritising them, aligning them with activities and evaluating the results to see what you have achieved - that kind of sums it up.

Yes, there are those unplanned times when everything goes for a toss and dealing with the circumstance becomes your top priority. For instance, dealing with a sudden loss- death of a loved one, sudden health issues, natural calamity, robbery, infidelity, breach of trust and so on. Coping with the loss, accepting it and springing back to normal takes enormous strength and is time consuming. But it has to be done - nonetheless.

Coming back to planned priorities - I believe each one of us can lead a healthy, happy and successful life by setting our priorities right. Making a decision always makes life peaceful. Setting priorities help in the decision making process too. So when you have a goal and some other peripheral springs up, your top priority irons out your indecisiveness and enables you to make a just decision. For me at least, setting priorities help me decide better.

Sometimes when we are at the crossroads and suddenly have too many things on our plate - we tend to get swayed by the most attractive item on the platter. We look at it as an attractive opportunity and grab it without much thought. However a little later, we realize that in our sudden zest to conquer something we never wanted to, we have neglected the dream that we have cherished for years. We don't even realize when this 'back up' or 'stop-gap' became our life and when we lost track of our 'top priority'. When realization dawns on us, there is resentment and regret. Sometimes, it becomes too late to restart work on the goal we had set for ourself 'once upon a time'. Under these circumstances people tend to get into a depression.

So - the rule is quiet simple. If you have a dream- dont lose sight of it. In my latest favorite book #Manuscript Found in Accra, Paulo Coelho sums it up beautifully. He says, when you are running towards your dream, it is also running towards you and is equally excited to meet you. So, if you love your dream, keep running. If you stop, it will stop coming towards you too. In The Alchemist, there was a further elaboration of this thought. It said, when you really want something, you get signs that show you the path towards it. We call these omens. However, if you keep neglecting them or postponing them thinking you will do them later - after a while they stop appearing. The signs vanish and suddenly you realize after y-e-a-r-s

that you never found the time to do what you always wanted to do. That's because you never had the time to set your priorities.

If love and family is your top priority - ensure you have the time and the intent to do all that you have always wanted to do for a loved one. The most important thing here being- spending time with them and loving them.

If a particular career option is on your priority list - make it happen. Don't subdue it and force it to subjugate under a backup career. Sometimes, taking a RISK is the best decision to make.

It is always good to have a second career option in mind. But sometimes it is dangerous too. Why

dangerous? Because it has a tremendous pull - a pull that can take you away from your top priority. Don't let it happen. If it helps, write down your priorities somewhere. Everyday, just look at them once. It will help you stay focused. It is helping me :)

Good luck to everyone who has a dream and a priority plan to make it happen.