Priorities

When you hear or read the word priority, who or what is the first thing or who or what are the things that comes to your mind? There is a quote that I used to love even before because of my last flirtationship. Maybe you have an idea with the quote as I know I have mentioned it in one of my articles before. I do not know who said the quote and if in case you are having a hard time guessing about it, the quote is,

"Never allow someone to be a priority while allowing yourself to be an option."

My friend forwarded that quote to me before when there were still no Facebook and she told me to send it to my significant other. That time, forwarded text messages or forwarded quotes were still a thing. I think my dad is one of the few who still forwards daily words of widoms to his friends via text message. Who here still sends quotable quotes via text message? When Facebook came into the picture, I would either share it on my wall and/or tag particular persons or save it to my Photos app.

Going back, since forwarded quotes were the thing before, it is a way for us to express our feelings towards a person. Then if someone would react, we can just easily say that it was only a forwarded quote. LOL. For some they put meaning into their forwarded quotes while others do not. I know I forwarded it to him and I did not receive any response. LOL. What was I expecting right? It is not like he will make me a priority even if I sent him that as he has his own priorities in life. He was my top most priority before even if I was only one of his options. Ouch! But that is what I chose and I accepted that.

When he left, I started to build my life by thinking about me, my family and friends without him in the picture. When he got back from Canada, it was like he never left. Our friendship was still there and so as our flirtationship. My priorities almost got ruined but luckily I was able to maintain and balance it even if he was around. He was not my top priority anymore because I have already learned my lesson. Even my fortune cookies have also reminded me of my priorities.

Most of you know me by now that my top most priority right now is my credit card debts. I have repeat this over and over again because that is a fact. However, there are also some things other than debt that I should also prioritize and that is my health.

In one of my previous articles, I updated you with my life or my health rather. I really hope that it was nothing serious. Though I still ate a lot of not so heart friendly foods this afternoon. LOL. My dad had a meeting so it was the only time that my mom and I can eat a burger so we had Jollibee. After a year and a half, I finally got to eat my favorite hamburger, Amazing Aloha Champ. I am still smiling while I am drafting this as I really could not contain my happiness when I was eating it.

I wanted my health to also be my priority and at the same time I wanted to spoil myself by eating the foods that I have not eaten for a long time. So which is which? I did enjoyed my burger but at the back of my mind and heart, they were like whispering to me to slow down. I did slow down because I savor every bite. LOL.

Obviously, I have not prioritize my health yet and I still do not know how I am going to start with my diet. But I have already checked out the things that I needed (or wanted. LOL) for my weight loss journey. With staying up late, I somehow have managed to sleep as early as 12AM for 2 nights now wirh 7-8 hours of sleep. Yahoo! My dad was even surprised when he saw that I was up early because I usually get out of my bed past 11AM. If I want to sleep earlier than that, my mind has to cooperate in drafting an article. Sleeping early is a step to a healthy lifestyle right?

Other than my debts and health, I also want to prioritize my family. Yes, I do get to spend a lot of time with my parents especially now that we are experiencing a pandemic. However, I want them to enjoy their golden years. I know it is impossible now but I want them to enjoy their money for the things that they want. I know my mom has a lot of things that she have long wanted to buy. My dad on the other hand has some medicines that he only take every other month as he is trying to fit all our expenses for a month with his pension.

My priorities align my goals. In order for me to achieve each of my goals, I need to focus or prioritize first on one thing before I can jump into another. In my case, not only do I need to prioritize my debts, health and family but I know that I also have to prioritize my business and my Youtube channels. As much as I want to multi-task, I cannot because my problem is money. I feel like I am becoming obsess with money for always talking about it. But I think having money is the only thing that can help me with some of my goals. For some I know they can balance their priorities all at once and I really envy them for that. I know soon I will also get to balance my priorites like how I balanced it before. What or who are your priorities in life? Do you include yourself in your list of priorities? How do you manage your priorities? Which comes first and which comes last?

Each of us have our own priorities in life and we have our own way and style how to manage them. It may differ from what number they are on our list but most of our priorities are somehow the same. We somehow share a common goal. We all want to spend quality time with our family and friends while having that much needed self-care and self-love. We also would want to have that financial stability and security not just for ourselves but for our loved ones. If you are a student, for sure that your studies are included in your priority list and if you are employed, surely your work is also your priority. When it comes to the problems of the heart, I hope that you would not end up prioritizing someone who only treats you as an option. Prioritize people who are worthy to be prioritized. Most importantly, prioritize tasks that need urgent attention.

P.S. lead image is a photo of my family with some of our relatives taken a few years back. I blurred it for privacy.