This month, we are going to focus on priorities — how to decide about ‘em, how to honor ‘em, how to keep them from disappearing... And how to truly ENJOY pursuing them!

Last month I shared Jack Welch's insightful quote, "There is no such thing as life balance, just life priorities."

Yeah, great. So what do I do with so many priorities that nothing is a priority?

And yes, we all have many different categories of priorities — work, family, friends, health, finances... And on top of that, we have all the priorities other people have made for us! Sometimes we get tired just thinking about all of these, and you are not alone — many times I feel the same way.

But just as we can't be in two places at once, we can't be honoring too many masters all at once. Point: the people who are most effective in honoring their priorities are those who are more clear on which ones are the greatest priority at that point in time.

There is a lot of information on how to deal with this, and a lot of ways to become clearer. We are going to spend this month giving you some of those tools to help you stress less, and achieve more of the important stuff, so that you don't feel like you've been disloyal to what it is truly important to you.

One of the best tools I have experienced, both personally and in working with my coaching clients is what I call the "long view." Taking the long view means looking out as far in time that you possibly can to help you decide today's priorities. As an example, if one of your priorities is to achieve your MBA within the next 10 years, there are things you can do this year, this quarter, this month, or this week to work toward that goal. However, if you just "wish" that one day you'll achieve your MBA, most likely your actions will be always be "someday" (which many times means "never getting to it.") The long view helps you with your intentionality about what you want to do, be, or have in your lifetime.

Here's another interesting example. In my life balance workshops, I ask people to speak to their neighbor and fill in the blank, "Gee, I have always wanted to..." In the debrief immediately following, invariably someone will say, "I've always wanted to travel." This sets the coach (yep, me!) in motion.

• Where would you like to travel? Be specific.
• Okay, so you've always wanted to go to Italy. Great.
• By when would you like to do this? Give yourself a reasonable timeframe.
• How much money do you believe this will cost you?
• What do you need to do to put the money aside to be able to do this?
• What else do you need to do to put this in motion?
• What is one thing you can do this month or this week to achieve your life goal of traveling to Italy?

So much for an example of how you can use the long view to put short-term actions into your daily, weekly, or monthly to do lists. Try it! You may be very surprised at how your dreams can easily come to life.

We are going to devote our blog posts and podcasts this month to this weighty issue, so please stay tuned for tips and strategies that can help you feel greater satisfaction in honoring the priorities in your life.

The Priority Funnel (20 second read)

How to Get It ALL Done! (20 second read)

How to Decide What to Work On Next (2 minute listen)

Taking in Mahatma Gandhi's quote, above, here is a gut check: Note how much time you're spending on email, and how many times you check your inbox for new email daily. Her point is that however you spend your time can tell you what is important.

• Is checking email many times daily THAT important?
• Are you spending more time in your inbox than being truly productive?

Time for some hard answers, folks!

"The most important thing in life is knowing the most important things in life." — David F. Jakielo

"Action expresses priorities." — Mahatma Gandhi

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

Here is your monthly challenge: take the long view!

Write down at least three goals — wanted that is 10 weeks out, one that is 10 months out, and one that is 10 years out. Find a way to keep these goals present, and as you do your weekly and daily action lists, works some of these longer view goals into daily actions.