Having the right priorities in your life is the key to living a happy life. Indeed, when we know what’s most important and give it the most attention, then we feel we’re making progress in our lives. Yet, on a day-to-day basis, we often feel lost, everything gets mixed up and, little by little, we feel like we’re wasting our time. That’s why I’m sharing with you 6 tips for getting your priorities right.

1 – Set the right priorities: define what’s most important

To have the right priorities in your life, it’s essential to know what’s really important to you, in all areas.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to ask yourself this question and take the time you need to answer it:

What’s most important to you at work, at home, personally, with friends and as a couple?

What matters most to you?

Because it’s not uncommon for us to get lost in details, or even worse, in endless problems. In fact, we lose our priorities when we spend too much time doing or thinking about things that aren’t important to us.

In other words, stop regularly in your week and even in your day to ask yourself: Is what I’m doing really important to me? Is it or isn’t it?

2 – Freedom from the gaze of others

In today’s society, the gaze of others is increasingly present, and even burdensome. Indeed, with social networks, we can see behind the scenes of everyone else’s daily life, and we’d like to do the same.

Except that too much is too much.

In fact, life isn’t about doing everything like everyone else, it’s about doing what you want.

So how do you get your priorities right and avoid doing everything like everyone else?

To do so, I invite you to replace “I must” with “I want, I feel like, I choose”.

In concrete terms, look back at everything you’re used to doing over a whole week and ask yourself: Am I doing this because I have to, or because I want to, or because I want to, or because I choose to?

Having the right priorities in your life means freeing yourself from the gaze of others.

So be you. Find your essential self.

3 – Get your priorities right: choose to live for yourself

From an early age, we’ve been taught to be nice. Too nice.

In fact, we believe in pleasing others. All the time!

In other words, we spend a lot of time doing things for others, doing things to avoid disappointing them, to show them that they can count on us.

And, as a result, we lose sight of the right priorities in our lives and get lost running around.

In your life, you have one priority and that’s you. Your happiness, your well-being.

When you say it like that, it may sound selfish, but it’s true.

Can’t you feel it? That tiredness, that annoyance of always doing for others? Don’t you feel the need to put the important things first, and especially yourself, your needs and your desires?

So how do you go about it? Learn to say no. When you’re asked to do something and it doesn’t feel like yes to you, it feels like no, so say no.

Do it to please yourself.

4 – Knowing how to refocus

If you don’t have the right priorities in life, you forget something essential: we’re going to die one day.

Life will end.

The idea of death is frightening, yet it’s a great source of inspiration for living a happy life.

Why is it so? Because it helps us refocus. It’s magical!

In practical terms, to get your priorities right and stop losing yourself, I wholeheartedly invite you to imagine yourself on your deathbed.

What would you like to remember? What would you like to have done?

In fact, a study has shown that the greatest regret of people on their deathbed is to have lived their life according to others.

So don’t make the same mistake, allow yourself to refocus on the things that really matter to you, just for you.

Do what you like without worrying about other people’s judgments and criticisms.

5 – Know when to let go to set the right priorities

In fact, every day, problems arise, bad news comes our way, conflicts start and we give them a lot of importance.

In fact, we do nothing but think and talk about them. So much so, in fact, that we stop doing the things that make us happy, and even stop feeling a sense of happiness and well-being.

Eventually, what’s weighing us down takes up all the space.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to learn to let go, so you can get your priorities right and stop having your time and energy devoured by what’s weighing you down.

How do I do that? Letting go means understanding that we can’t control everything, accepting that things don’t go according to plan, and deciding to carry on doing what’s most important, what really matters to us.

Despite the problems, despite everything, keep doing what makes you happy. Let go of what you can’t control.

6 – Remember what’s most important

There’s one last tip for getting your priorities right, and stopping getting lost in actions and thoughts that weigh us down and only lead to stress.

I apply this tip several times a day, and I invite you to do the same:

List 3 things that make you smile right now.

Do this when you wake up, before you go to sleep. Do it when you get behind the wheel of your car, when you start a meal, when you sit on the sofa, when you take a shower…

List 3 things.

Practicing gratitude is magic! It allows you to refocus on the most important things in your life, in your everyday life.

In fact, our thoughts often turn to what’s stressing us, and little by little, that’s all we see. This exhausts us, makes us irritable and we lose sight of the meaning of our lives.

Gratitude has the power to bring us back to what’s most important, and to set the right priorities in our lives.

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover Fear of change: 7 tips for accepting change
Discover Stop overthinking: 5 signs that you’re overthinking

I recommend this inspiring book:

The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

The authors guide us in identifying and prioritizing what really matters in our lives. This book advocates the power of focus and the pursuit of the most important goals, encouraging individuals to concentrate their efforts on the one thing that can make a significant difference. With practical advice and compelling examples, the authors emphasize the importance of aligning actions with priorities, enabling readers to achieve extraordinary results in their personal and professional lives by focusing on what really matters.

This book helped me stay more focused. It’s an easy book to read. I highly recommend it to people who are very distracted by their personal and professional lives.

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself