What Top Priorities in Life Should We Have? (11 Examples)
Sometimes in life we can feel like everything is important. As a result, we struggle to get anything done. Learning examples of priorities in life can help you determine what is and isn’t important.
Perhaps we all sometimes feel like there isn’t enough time in our days to do our daily tasks. If that’s your mindset, you may need to set some priorities in life. Not having a clear sense of your priorities makes it harder to manage your time.
With your time mismanaged, it can be more of a struggle to make any progress with your goals. Taking on a large number of responsibilities will only overwhelm you.
Determining your priorities in life is a key factor to accomplishing what matters to you in life. Being clear on them allows you to make the best decisions.
If you’re unsure of what your top priorities should be, the suggestions I’ve listed later in this article will help get you started. But first, let’s break down this idea deeper.
What are priorities in life?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, priority means something given or meriting attention before competing alternatives.
It’s the meaningful and important areas in life that we put more time and effort into over other things. They ‘re the relationships, activities, or practices that we choose to value most.
Instead of dealing with the stress of everything being important, you have something to be focused on first.
You can be more able to say no to certain requests of your time. You can be more disciplined in what you choose to do in your day.
When you have your top life priorities set, it can guide you in what tasks to focus on in your day.
How are priorities different from goals?
A goal is the end objective to what you’re trying to achieve. Let’s say for example you want to get a certain grade in a class.
You would need to make choices such as studying or going to a tutor a priority.
Things related to school would be put first, and you’d say no to choices that would keep you from achieving your goal.
Why you should have priorities in life
It’s no fun when you feel indecisive in your decision making. It’s no fun to feel anxiety about whether you’re making the best choices in life.
You can develop confidence in your decision-making through having clearly defined priorities. You can be less burned out with not having to try to do everything.
Your priorities may change over time, but no matter what you prioritize, it’s important to have them to be more productive and less stressed.
Here are some examples you can consider for deciding what priorities you’re going to have in life.
These are in no particular order of importance. You can decide which of these should be your top ones.
Examples of Top Priorities in life
1. Physical well-being
Our well-being is what allows us to be alive to enjoy life. Without looking at a study, it’s probably true most people who are physically unwell are not that happy.
Vice versa, people who are physically well probably are happier. A lot of mental issues can be linked to whether one is living a lifestyle of wellness.
People who are inactive and constantly looking at screens tend to be more anxious and depressed. Additionally, when we’re not as active in life, we put ourselves at risk for other physical ailments.
People who aren’t physically fit also tend to have less energy. If you don’t have as much energy, you’re less motivated to do what’s necessary for your happiness.
We should all choose to make being physically well important to our lives. That mainly means getting enough sleep, eating right, and exercising.
Taking care of those three basic things can make a world of difference in your overall physical wellness.
2. Mental well-being
There’s a circular effect when you take care of yourself mentally and physically. The better you take care of yourself physically, the better you’ll feel mentally.
The better you feel mentally, the more you’ll take care of yourself physically. It’s hard to want to eat well and exercise when you’re feeling low.
It’s important to do what you can to nurture your emotions. Take moments in your day to breathe and relax.
Allow yourself space to pause and relieve some of your burdens through meditation. Write in a journal or take a walk outside in nature.
If you need to talk to someone, don’t be ashamed to seek out professional help. Our world would be much better off if more of us sought therapy.
Taking care of our mental well-being is something that should be important to everyone.
3. Life purpose
We all have hopes, dreams and passions in life. Ideas we’ve thought about since childhood, or a purpose we discovered in our adulthood.
Whichever the case is for you, it can be something you can make important in your life. Take time to do something everyday that gets you closer to your dream.
Put together a long-term plan of success to make your purpose in life more possible. Include ways you can make yourself more prepared for potential opportunities.
Some of you may not even know your life purpose now. If that’s the case, it should be even more prioritized.
Go out and try new things. Take on some different challenges in life you’ve never considered. It’s through living and experiencing life we discover what we really like.
Take time to get out and do things more to discover your purpose if you haven’t, then put a plan together to pursue it.
4. Family
Family is a tricky one. I’ve met people who make family everything in their life. I’ve also met other people who don’t care to have much to do with their families.
It all varies based on whether someone had positive or negative experiences growing up. The way I see it, even if your family life hasn’t been the best, it could still perhaps be prioritized.
It just might be in a different way than most people. No matter how your parents may have been, you still wouldn’t be in this world without them.
If you can help them out in some way, that would be a good thing to do. If you’re not close with your siblings, you can still be there for them if they need help.
Just be sure it doesn’t have a significant negative impact on your life. Family, whether it’s the one you grew up with or the ones you found in adulthood, is a good thing to make matter in your life.
5. Relationships
Beyond family, your relationships in general can be something you make time for in life. I’ve mentioned before that a Harvard study noted one of the biggest factors to a long life is happy relationships.
If your relationship with your friends, your partner, or family members is a negative one, you need to find a way to fix them.
Sit down with those people and talk about why the relationship has felt negative for you. Have a real heart-to-heart conversation with them.
Pay attention to how much they’re listening and understanding you, versus waiting until they can speak and defend themselves.
If you get to a point where you no longer feel respected, you might have to make a tough decision.
If you’ve prioritized your mental well-being, then for the sake of it, you might have to cut the negative people out.
6. Financial well-being
Money is something we pretty much all have to focus on in life. Without it, it’s extremely difficult to take care of ourselves and our families.
There’s a lot of ways you can be more conscious of the money you have in life. The first obvious way is to save.
There are many apps that can help you track how much you’re spending in a month. Secondly, you can look for ways you can earn extra income.
There are gig sites like Upwork where you can find small jobs you can do. Consider looking into other opportunities like Uber or Airbnb.
Lastly, it’s good to consider investing. While you may not know a lot about it, try learning something new every day.
Over time, you can build up enough knowledge to make some wise investment decisions. Consider looking into consulting with an investment advisor as well.
7. Personal development
The better you get as a person, the better your life can get. That’s why you should think about making personal development an essential part of your life.
There a number of motivational speakers you can watch on TV and self-help books you can read. One of my favorites I would recommend is How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big.
It’s got loads of good practical life skills to improve in yourself. Some other things you might want to do is attend business workshops or take gym classes.
Think of what your weaknesses are and look for resources you can use to improve on them. Being someone with a variety of talents can increase your odds of success in life.
Look it as a fun challenge to see how much you can build yourself up as a person.
8. Your Community
Community is a big thing for some people. We all have to live together, so it should be important for all of us to do our part to care about one another.
Find time to volunteer with organizations that feed the hungry or tutor at-risk children. Look for local non-profits and charities that you can donate your time and money to.
In addition to your local community, the global community can be something you focus more on too.
You can donate to causes around the world or do your part to limit the effects of global warming by living more sustainably.
Its people helping other people which keeps us from being crushed by the burdens of the world.
9. Safety
Particularly with finding a place to live, most of us make it important to live somewhere safe. Unfortunately, not all of us get to have this luxury.
If you’re planning to move somewhere new, realtor.com can highlight where some of the heaviest crime areas are in a city.
10. Happiness
As important as happiness is, it can seem sometimes we don’t do enough to make it essential in our lives.
We spend a lot of time worrying about how our choices may affect someone else. There’s of course nothing wrong with being selfless towards others.
But you should also be considerate of yourself too. If you’re happy, you can be better able to make others happy.
Think about what makes you feel really good in life. These are things you should try to have more of for your overall happiness.
Try to also eliminate things that don’t bring you as much happiness as well. I’ve written a few steps you can read on how you can become a minimalist.
11. Faith
Growing up in the south, faith was the biggest priority in most people’s lives I knew. Going to church on most Sundays and having Bible studies at home.
If you want to make a faith an important part of your life, get connected with a local church community. Participate in church activities, read a religious text, and pray often.
I wrote an article on Christian minimalism that you might find useful.
All of these are great examples of what people make necessities in their lives. There are probably much more that people consider important.
Once you decide what’s of importance to you, make more time for those things. Doing so will help make you more happy than you’ve ever been.
