Do your priorities align with your goals? I’m sure that most of you are replying something along the lines of, “Yes, of course they do. My goals are a top priority!” And you might be right, but I want you to take a closer look. If your goal is to save money, how often are you shopping online? If your goal is to lose weight, how many “cheat” days are you having, how often are you saying, “oh, a little more can’t hurt.”? If your goal is to turn your side hustle into a full-time career, how often are you spending your evenings and weekends going out with friends? We, as humans, tend to give ourselves a lot of grace, which is great in a lot of ways, but we also need to be able to hold ourselves accountable and develop self-discipline.
I recently heard a quote from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear that says, “Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become.” This really resonated with me as I am currently in the midst of a personal journey to become more physically fit. I have spent the last decade thinking that my health was a priority for me but when I really sat down and looked at my habits and the actions that I take every day, I couldn’t kid myself any longer. I spent so much time meal planning and thinking about my workout habits, but what was I actually doing every day? I was convincing myself that I was too tired to cook dinner so I had better order another pizza, or that “It’s too late to go to the gym so I’ll just finish this episode and then I’ll go tomorrow.” And then three episodes later, I was still awake and had made no progress towards my goal of getting healthier. I realized that no matter what I thought I was telling myself my priorities were, I was actually telling my subconscious self that my priorities were to care more about my comfort than my diet, and to care more about Netflix than my fitness.
Now let’s be real, we aren’t always going to have the self-discipline to keep our goals in the forefront and to prioritize the things that will help us achieve our goals. There are going to be times that you need to prioritize your comfort or your mental health and that is ok! But, you need to be sure that you are making a conscious choice to temporarily shift your priorities. Doing this will help you reinforce that your main goal is still your main goal and this is just a temporary deviation from the plan. And most importantly, you have to get right back to the plan.
If you are truly serious about achieving your goals, you need to be ready to take an honest look at what you are prioritizing in your life. Do your daily habits and actions align with what you are telling yourself that your goals are, or do they align better with keeping yourself in your comfort zone?