Is it time to reset your priorities?
Image: Willian Justen de Vasconcellos
Recently, I listened to a public radio show where an entrepreneur was sharing the biggest lesson that he’d learned from reading a biography of Steve Jobs (a book he’d been excited to read). But it wasn’t the lesson he’d expected.
His takeaway from reading that book? His priorities needed to shift.
As he read about a lifestyle similar to his own, it hit him. He was living and breathing his company 80-120 hours a week. While this had worked for him for a long time, his life had changed. Now, he had a family and had built a capable business team, but he hadn’t adjusted anything in his life to reflect that. And it was time.
He started by working 40 hours a week. While that was a bumpy adjustment, in the end, there were transformative positive impacts.
He’d discovered who he wanted to be in this next phase of his life and he set about reinventing himself into that person.
(He also made a few tactical mistakes along the way, which is all part of making big changes.)
This is not a story about working fewer hours or managing your team. In fact, it’s not a story about working at all.
It’s an example of why it’s important to re-assess and reset our priorities as we move through different stages of our lives and careers.
It’s about getting off autopilot and actively growing, evolving and taking responsibility for the life you want to live and the person you want to be. (Also: not slowly slipping into who/what you don’t want to be.)
Sometimes that message comes from a book, or a coach, or (often) a life-changing event. Sometimes it's more of a slow burn, an intuition, burnout or the increasing realization that something needs to change. Sometimes those shifts mean doing more. Sometimes less. A lot of the time, it's just doing things differently.
Priorities evolve. It’s important not only to have a clear sense of what yours are, but also to be aware of when they have changed.
Or when they might need to change.
What does this mean for those of us who are looking for practical strategies to live and work at our best and create more of what matters in our lives?
Many of my clients come to me in a similar space as this entrepreneur was in—on the edge of the big shift or just on the other side. That’s because discovering and creating (or adjusting to) what’s next for you is always about reassessing, reconnecting and stretching yourself to make new choices. Sustainable self care and personal growth are about that, too. We life coaches (and our clients) talk a lot about finding your purpose. But the reality of day to day living is that purpose evolves, too. In my experience, spending too much time navel gazing about the elusive Grand Purpose can get in the way of choosing to live purposefully, every day, based on your current priorities.
As the late Duke Ellington once said, “Every intersection in the road of life is an opportunity to make a decision.”
That entrepreneur? He saw the intersection facing him and he made a decision that changed everything. It was a decision that started with his values, his current priorities and getting really honest with himself.
The best decisions are like this. They're the ones that wake you up to and start to align your day-to-day with what matters most in this season of life. They help to give you a sense of grounded purpose. And we do it knowing that at some point, we may make different ones based on new circumstances. That's growth.
What about you?
What intersections have you faced, and what decisions did you make? What intersections are you facing now? Where are the road signs pointing you? What will you need to do, be, have or believe to create what's next for you? What’s your next step?
