Motivation is a slippery fish. We want it. We know we need it. And yet sometimes it slips and slides around like a live fish on the deck of a boat–we can’t quite get a grasp on it and do the things we want and need to do. This week we will focus on prioritization. This is a hot topic for counselors and coaches alike. We love to talk about priorities. But when it comes time for the rubber to meet the road, sometimes the motivation is still lacking despite talking all day long about our priorities.
Recently, I was buddy coaching with a dear friend in Pennsylvania and she was coaching me on the topic of getting motivated to exercise. I determined that my priorities should be God, family, health, counseling/ministry, and work. However, my priorities ACTUALLY are Counseling, work, family, God/ministry, and health. There is a big difference in the order here! She asked me if I could only give myself to three of those things, what would it be, and I chose God, family, and health immediately. We then looked in my planner, which did not feature these things at all.
It’s been said that whatever you give your time, money, and energy to is what your priority is. And how foolish of us to make our priorities temporal rather than eternal, as God’s Word says:
“The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:17
“What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away,” 1 Corinthians 7:29-31.
What are your priorities? What SHOULD they be?
How can your schedule better reflect your ideal priorities?
When we think about what is most important to us, what we refuse to compromise on, and what enables us to continue on doing the work of the Lord, we can see what our priorities truly should be. Once we get our priorities back in line with where they should be, I am confident we will gather that slippery motivation fish in our nets and be ready to set sail toward our goals.
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