BEST ACTIONABLE TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF A PRIORITY

How often do you make yourself a priority? You have probably heard an air hostess tell you to put your oxygen mask on in an emergency before you help anyone else. This is important to remember in life too. If you are not able to take care of yourself you will not be able to properly take care of anyone else.

Why is it Important to Make Yourself a Priority?

Imagine if everyone in the world took proper care of themselves, took time to do the things that they enjoyed and filled their cup, did things to protect their mental health and heal their past traumas. The world would be a much more happy, inspiring and safe place.

In order to navigate life‘s many challenge’s while maintaining overall wellbeing, it is important to make yourself a priority and make time to take care of yourself.

I have had experience with severe burnout personally and with others. When you are burnt out because you don’t make yourself a priority and are not making time for the things you enjoy; you, as well as the people around you, suffer because you are more irritable, frustrated and tired. When you feel this way, you hurt yourself and the people around you.

Common Challenges to Make Yourself a Priority

Guilt

You may start to feel guilty when you make yourself a priority. People often feel a societal pressure to make sure everyone else is ok and that their needs are taken care of before taking care of themselves. Taking care of yourself often feels selfish, but it’s not. Like I already said above, when you are happy and taken care of, you are in a better place to take care of others and if you are not taking care of yourself then those around you will also suffer from your mood.

It is important that you take a mindset of self-compassion and kindness towards yourself. If you are kind to yourself you will start to believe that you do deserve to be taken care of and that you deserve time to yourself to do the things that you enjoy.

Time

Another reason you may not make yourself a priority is because you feel like you don’t have time. I understand feeling like there is not enough time and that self-care is not a priority. However, self-care is a priority and you need to make a decision that this is important to you and to make time for it.

For example, do you spend a lot of time scrolling through instagram or watching Netflix? Or are you a bit of a workaholic and spend time working past 5pm or on the weekends? This is time you could be spending on your hobbies and just taking care of yourself.

Reflect On Your Values

In order for you to make yourself a priority, you need to use your time wisely so that you feel satisfied with your life. It is important for you to know what your personal values are in order to do this. If you do not know what you value, it is easier to waste time.

I recommend have no more than 3 to 5 top personal values. Everything that you do throughout your day should be in line with these values.

Find your values by writing all the values and characteristics you can think of. You could also ask chat GPT what some values are to get an idea. Then underline all the values that feel true to you.

To get your list of values down to 3-5, think about your goals and interests and see if any of the values fit your goals.

For example, if you like to read a lot and learn about different things, maybe one of your values is learning. If you feel happiest with family and always put family activities first, you probably value family. If you like to explore your city every weekend, maybe you value adventure.

Your top 3-5 values should be the values that, when implemented, make you feel happiest. Once you know these goals you can start implementing them through activities and start to be more mindful of your time.

Be Realistic

Big lifestyle changes are difficult – especially if you are used to being too busy to make yourself a priority.

It is important to set small achievable goals. If you make big goals they will be too difficult to implement. It is also important to only set one goal at a time so that you don’t get distracted or overwhelmed.

Another important thing to remember is that if you are not consistent with any changes you make or it doesn’t go as well as you had hoped, you need to be compassionate and kind to yourself. If you bully yourself because something didn’t work, you are more likely to give up because you won’t believe you are capable.

Try talking to yourself like you would a child or friend. If a child lost their soccer game would you tell them that they are useless or stupid? Of course not! So why do you talk to yourself like that?

Be flexible

Like stated above, your journey to making yourself a priority may not always go to plan and things will go wrong. When this happens, try adjusting and adapting your plan as needed.

It is important to be flexible to get the best results. For example if you plan to go for a 10km run everyday but one day you can’t think of anything worse, then don’t go on the run! Try something else such as yoga, a walk, swimming or whatever you feel like doing. Even playing beatsaber is better than nothing!