The One Skill That Will Prepare You For The Unpredictable Is This And Here Is What You Need To Know.

The ability to prioritize prepares you for the unpredictable.

“Let us reflect on what is truly of value in life, what gives meaning to our lives, and set our priorities on the basis of that.” Dalai Lama

A lot of people can’t account for how they spend their time and yet still expect to be productive with their life. We live in a noisy world and oftentimes, it can be difficult to get your priorities right if you don’t know what you want out of life.

If there is anything setting your priority gets you, it’s that the ability to prioritize prepares you for the unpredictable.

It’s hard to know if you are wasting your time if you don’t know how you are spending it. To achieve an extraordinary result, you must choose what matters most and give it all the time it demands. The fact is as Mark Twain once said, “To change your life, you need to change your priorities.”

To make sure you’re able to focus on your priorities it’s important you ask yourself the ‘why’ behind everything you do. Once you have a deeper understanding of why something is important to you, it makes it easier to follow through with getting it done.

“The first step to success is knowing your priorities.” Aspesh

Success comes down to being appropriate in the moment of your life. And being appropriate at the right moment of your life boils down to being appropriate with your time. Success and failure are not instantaneous they compound over time and the result only becomes visible when the time comes. Arnold H Glasgow puts it best when he said success is simple. Do what is right, the right way at the right time. When you set your priorities right and work right with it, you are closer to achieving your goals.

In other to get your priorities right, Here is what you need to know:

Get Down To Your Purpose

“A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with — that’s poverty — but how efficiently we can put first things first. When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it’s clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar.” Victoria Moran

What’s your purpose?

Purpose, meaning and significance are what makes a successful life say, Gary Keller. Your purpose sets your priority and your priority determines the productivity your actions produce.

Who we are and where we want to go determine what we do and what we accomplish. Knowing your purpose is important because it helps you put your priorities in order and when your daily actions fulfil a bigger purpose, the most powerful and enduring happiness can happen.

Purpose without priority is powerless for when your life is on purpose, living by priority takes precedence.

Live with purpose and you know where you want to go. Live by priority and you will know what to do to get there.

Get On It.

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

Some know what it is they want however, action is what is missing in their life. Your priorities serve as a guiding star to keep you on course.

Aligning your daily actions with what is truly important to you means you are becoming true to yourself and exploring more of your potential. Knowing your purpose without putting in the action gets you nowhere. Jude King, PhD was right when he said action is the name of the game when it comes to achieving whatever it is you want.

How can you start taking action? I wrote about it extensively here but these are what you can do to start taking action.

Batch your task

If your work requires large action from you then you need to learn to batch your task in a small bit. My life changed the moment I learned to start batching my work. It’s what I have used to develop some of my habits this year such as reading and writing.

Practice Consistency

Have you ever felt so motivated to make a change in your life, but in just a few days, you retreated back to your old habits? Prevent this by prioritising what you need to do every day to keep you motivated and focused.

Majority of people want to do the big work at once and never come back to it again. Great work takes time and the best way to do great work if you want to take action is to learn to do your work consistently. When you learn to make your work consistent, it will be easier for you to take action.

Don’t overthink it

Overthinking your work can lead to not taking action. In as much as you are showing up to the best you can and giving it your all, be rest assured you will get the result. Even if you don’t get result, overthinking won’t help you solve it rather try changing your approach and see if things change. But don’t overthink it because overthinking has been known not to solve any problem.

Conclusion

Invest your resources wisely. Resources are finite. When you overcommit your time or spread your resources too thin, you fail to dedicate the attention that your priorities deserve. Reaching your goals requires two things of you: Know what you want and commit to it with your actions. Any other thing will derail you from getting there. After all, to prepare for the unpredictable, you need to learn to prioritize.