Priorities and Goals

Over the past week, I have been doing some major internal reflection.  I have been thinking about what is most important to me, in the form of a top 10 list.  I would like to challenge all my readers to do the same if you haven’t already. 

Write down 10 (or more) things that take the most priority in your life.  I didn’t worry about putting them in order at that time, I just brain-stormed for things I enjoy, things that make me feel fulfilled, and how I would spend my day if I could spend it however I wanted to.  You can also include things that you feel the world around you is pressurizing you to make your priorities.

Afterwards I went through the list and asked myself:  Is A more important to me than B?  Is A more important to me than C? and so on until I had put them in order of most important to least important.

Here is my final Top 10 List:

1. God
2. Family
3. Pets
4. Health
5. Home
6. Friends
7. Garden
8. Hobbies
9. Learning
10. Career

Everybody’s list will be different with different priorities, there is no right or wrong list, this is because we are all individuals and each one of us is fulfilled by different activities.  One person may feel fulfilled by having a day sitting on the porch reading, another person may feel fulfilled by a day out in the wilderness on a mountain bike.  Mark, for example, feels fulfilled when going sailing or working on his car, so his car is quite high on his list.

The point of this is to figure out what you enjoy and do it.  One thing that makes me feel more fulfilled is doing housework, believe it or not I enjoy doing laundry more than having coffee with a friend!

After creating this list I started working out some goals for the year that will make me feel fulfilled in each of my 10 priorities.  Here they are:

1. Read the whole Bible
2. Get married
3. Buy a pet dog (Beagle or Cocker Spaniel)
4. Eat three meals a day and get 15 min of exercise a day
5. Buy a house
6. Have 3 best friends
7. Start a vegetable garden
8. Hobbies:
   1. Cross-Stitch – finish a major tapestry
   2. Lego – buy the cargo train for my Lego city
   3. Sims – Reach family generation 5
9. Learning:
   1. Sewing – Learn to sew (and sew a few skirts for myself)
   2. Etiquette – Research and practice Victorian etiquette
   3. Reading – Read a book a month
10. Career:
    1. Become a senior programmer
11. Other goals:
    1. Run in the rain!
    2. Go on a nice holiday.

Some of these goals may not make sense to many people, but these are what I want to get done this year.  What are your goals for the year?

I’d love to read your priorities and goals so feel free to email me or post them as a comment!