3 Quotes to Help You Prioritize Your Goals

The other day I asked one of my Goal Getters what their number one goal was the rest of this year and what their number one obstacle was to achieving that goal. Their answer was not uncommon to what most people answer. They have a problem trying to prioritize their goals. Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees.

I don’t always know what do do first. I have so many things I am working on that I don’t know which one is a higher priority. This reminds me of work projects. When you are working with many groups on a product and everyone has something they want done and you only have so many resources you have to set priorities.  Inevitably when you ask them each to prioritize their individual requests they almost always say, “They’re all High Priority. They are all #1.”

When I think about the task of prioritize I was looking for a good image to help identify what we often go through. The proverbial statement, “You can’t see the forest for the trees” came to mind and I chose the image above. When we start working on our goals we often have a hard time of seeing the forest for the trees. This is especially true if we have multiple goals we are working on at one time.

I thought of 3 quotes that that help me focus when I need to prioritize my goals

Schedule Your Priorities

The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. ~ Stephen Covey

The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. ~ Stephen Covey Click To Tweet

When we set goals as part of the Goal Achievement Success System, we always create an action plan. Within that plan we have specific tasks that must be accomplished to achieve the goal. We set up a schedule of what needs to be done and when. When things are getting tough and we have many tasks to do it is important to remember the above quote. If we think about our Why, the reason we are working on this goal in the first place, it will help us set what our priorities. If the tasks will not immediately help move us forward to the achievement of our goal, then it should be a lower priority.

Do What Is Important

Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.  ~ Stephen Covey

Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important. ~ Stephen Covey Click To Tweet

Many of the tasks we are working on are urgent. They really need to be done. Some have more urgency than others. The key to understanding prioritizing your goals is understanding of what is important over what is just urgent. If you have a business and your goals is to increase your revenues, then your priority is to do those actions that are important to bringing in that revenue. If you you urgently need to do something but it doesn’t mean you will earn revenue or improve customer satisfaction (which we must understand that making our customers happy will either increase our revenues or decrease them, depending on whether you do or don’t make the customer happy) than it should have a lower priority than those that must be done to earn revenue.

Motion Doesn’t Mean Action

Never Mistake Motion for Action ~ Ernest Hemingway

Never Mistake Motion for Action ~ Ernest Hemingway Click To Tweet

This is one of my favorite quotes and it hangs on my wall at home and at the office. When I first saw this quote in 2014, I knew that I had to start taking action on my goals. I had many goals including writing and publishing my book, 9 Steps To Successful Goal Achievement. I had set this goal years ago and had gotten as far as creating the outline for it on my computer. I just never acted on it. Once I saw this quote, I knew I had to stop going through the motions of thinking about how I wanted to do it, what should I do first, and all the other things that weren’t getting the book written or published.  Just because I was doing things, or moving paper around, doesn’t mean I was writing. So, I started doing the things I needed to do to get my book published. I started writing! I took action.

When you start wondering what you should do next focus; on these three quotes and then:

• Determine what is your top priority. Which goal is the closest to my ultimate WHY. When you know your why you will be able to prioritize more effectively.
• Do what is important. Choose what will get you closer to the goal. It may not be the most urgent but the most important.
• Take Action on those tasks and actions that will get you goal achieved.

If I can help you with your goal setting and prioritization, let me know.

Go out today and make it a great day!

 

Thanks www.BrainyQuote.com for the quotes and www.unsplash.com for the photo.