Setting Priorities

Life can be so busy!!

Setting priorities and focusing time and energy on the highest priority activities is a valuable technique to create the life we truly want.

I sometimes find it difficult to know how to set the 'right' priorities. Ah, perhaps that is the issue here, trying again to get it 'right'. I have spent much of my life trying to be 'perfect', to get it 'right'.

How many of you deal with this challenge? Do you need to get it 'right' and feel frustrated if you don't know how to do it 'right'?

A friend suggested I give myself time to simply relax and allow time for the sense of discomfort and frustration to 'settle', or at least to gain clarity about it. Writing can help, at least it does for me. Walking in nature helps also.

The truth is that I am setting priorities, maybe not in the way I'd prefer, however I make choices all the time about what to do next. There is the force of habit that mostly governs the choices I make. I prefer to be more consciously aware and choose based on my major goals and dreams for the life I want to create.

Sometimes I hear a little voice inside telling me to relax and allow the Universe to do more of the work for me. That has not been easy for me to do. I tend to think that I must be doing something in order for results to happen. I keep hearing the phrase "If it's going to be, it's up to me."

Are we human beings or human doings?

What is the balance between thinking, visualizing, meditating and action?

The creative process, and the process of life, is interesting to explore. We are all doing this, whether we are conscious of it or not.

Words - Thoughts - Energy

Our words are powerful. In actuality words reveal our thoughts.

What really creates is our energy or 'vibration'.

We are like tuning forks. When a tuning fork is struck, the matching tuning fork across the room will respond. It is like that for us. When we are thinking and feeling a certain way, we attract what matches that.

I was thinking more about my experience yesterday with the severe weather. When I said 'It is a miserable day', my words revealed my thoughts and how I was feeling about the weather and my day. The events of the day reflected my attitude.

Today I had more challenges with heavy rains. I had to clear the river next to the apartment complex again. The sand bags I put in front of the doors to the hair salon and our laundry room did not work the way I had hoped.

What I noticed today is that my attitude was different. My thoughts were more cheerful, and my attitude was more positive. I was able to smile and be grateful that I knew what needed to be done and had the energy to do it.

Being aware and making progress is the key. It is about improvement, not perfection.

Words are powerful in creating our life!

I read and hear this often, that what we say has a powerful impact on our lives.

I experienced this rather 'quickly' yesterday. We had a rather severe storm in Northern California, high winds and lots of rain. I was awake early and attended a breakfast meeting of Castro Valley Sunrise Rotary. I went to the bank afterwards. As I entered the bank I commented to the manager that it was a 'miserable day'. His quick response was "It's a wonderful day!"

His comment made me think about the difference in our attitudes. Having recently watched the "You Can Heal Your Life Movie" and reading the book by Louise Hay, I know how important it is to be careful what I say. Even though the weather was severe, I could still choose to make it a wonderful day. Instead I'd allowed the weather to affect my perspective on what kind of day it was.

After the bank I came home and chose to lay down for a little rest. I had a sore throat and felt it was time to rest and heal. Someone knocked on my door. When I answered, the man who works in the hair salon in the front of our building (I'm the manager of an apartment complex) told me that water was coming into the salon and he asked for my help.

I went down to check on the problem and found the drain not working. We had a little river along the side of the building. I called the plumber and then went down to see what I could do while waiting for the plumber to come. I opened our laundry room to find water flowing under the door from the river beside the building. I got the broom and did my best to divert water into the laundry room, where the little drain in the floor was working, though slowly.

When the plumber arrived, he and I worked for about 2 hours 'bailing' water as fast as we could, and he used his 'big machine' to snake out the drain. After he left I came up to get dry and have lunch. It started to rain more heavily, and I decided to go down and check to see how things were doing with the drain. It was backed up again, overwhelmed by all the heavy rains.

I called the plumber again and while I waited for him I swept as quickly as I could to divert the water away from the drain. Eventually the drain was able to handle the stream of water. When the plumber arrived, I explained that I'd been able to clear enough water away so that the drain worked again.

We watched for awhile and discussed what could be done. He felt he'd done as much as he could to clear the drain. It seemed to be working as long as it didn't get 'overwhelmed' with very heavy rain. He suggested I get sand bags to protect the hair salon and laundry room doors. If the water gets too high it will eventually have an outlet into our car port area and then out to the street.

It took me another 3 hours to go buy sand and bags. Then I found a way to empty 70 lb sand bags from paper into the specially treated bags I bought.

When I finally came up to get dry, have dinner and rest, it became rather clear to me that my attitude in the morning had affected my day. I had said it was a 'miserable day' and that is what I got!

I chose to look for the 'silver lining' in this experience. It was another 'wake up' lesson that what I say and think is important. I decided to be grateful that I have the energy and health (even at 61 years of age) to do this kind of work. Next time I'll call for someone to help me with things like the sand bags. The attitude that I have to do it myself is not very wise or effective. I was smart enough to call the plumber, I could have called our maintenance man Mark to help with the sand bags.

I hope you find ways to learn from the lessons in your life. Being grateful and being gentle with ourselves is the most effective ways to make our lives better and better.