How’s your “stuff”? Are your possessions that surround you providing help and support for your daily life? Do they gift you with more time and vitality shared with family and friends? I hope so. Possessions or our “stuff” often clutter and crowd out what is most important in our lives.
Don’t get me wrong here. I love to shop like the next person. There’s so much fun in the romance of finding that perfect outfit to wear or what about the next hi-tech computer gadget? Believe me, both are fun to find any time—at least for me! Yet, I always need to catch myself to make sure I’m not obsessed about having to have it.
Getting back to the basics of buying the next great thing is not an easy task in our fast paced, keeping up with the Jones’ national mindset. I bet, though, with the economic difficulties so many are having these days, we have all gone back to the drawing board to figure out what is most important. This has been particularly true during COVID 2020 and beyond.
What is important does not mean just tomorrow but years ahead. Are you currently in a dilemma on how to bring your desires, dreams, and goals into synergy, particularly in these tough financial times? If you share the same dilemma with many others, those basic tips are not that complicated yet still challenging for us all.
The first tip was already shared. What is most important to you, today, tomorrow, your lifetime? Start with listing your top five core values right now. Then next to them, write down your top five life dreams and goals you believe purposefully and strategically support those core values. Put an estimated date you would like to see those dreams/goals fulfilled.
This can be a little tricky. For certain personality styles, writing down a date can sometimes become a deadline drudgery! For some, they charge ahead no matter what to meet that deadline. Yet, somewhere along the way, a core value or two is left behind. The end-result or product/possessing became more important than the process or journey getting there. And often times, relationships are hindered and harmed along the way.
For other personality behavioral styles, a deadline is simply a wish list without the work to get there. It feels good to have the dream or goal—eliciting all kinds of warm and fuzzy good feelings. Along the way, the plan tends to never gets off the ground.
Disappointment or “Oh, well, that’s fate” sets in. At the same time, again relationships are hindered and harmed along the way. So, be sure to be flexible with your deadlines. At the same time, stay focused on your core values as you take action reaching your life dreams and goals.
Making decisions are a big part of daily living. Every choice will either become something we need or something we want. Here is the next question to ask yourself before you buy another wonderful bit of “stuff” in your life. Is it a need or a want? When we know the difference, we begin to prioritize our purchases and decisions according to our core values and life goals. Our life and financial assets are then protected from being “muddled” away until we get hit with a crisis. We can then avoid wondering where the money went and how we can recover, if at all.
Finally, be of good cheer, you actually are on an exciting journey of discovery about yourself and where you want to head in life. You will discover and more consciously plan your daily routine, decisions, and choices based on your core values. You will then be in sync with your goals that offer vitality and purpose each day. This is what life is all about—seeing the big picture in bite-size pieces all fitting together. There will even be room for life’s surprises along the way because you embraced being kind to yourself and others.