Over the last several weeks I have been looking towards the new year and trying to prepare for that one question that everyone is going to ask you, "So, what's your New Year's resolution?" I have been working on several things.
The biggest thing that I have been trying to focus on is my priorities. Our priorities are constantly changing, however, there should always be a few that stand above the rest and never change. When we were children our top priority was playing. As teens, our priority was trying to figure out who the heck we were and where we were going with our lives. Not to mention trying to get a date for the dance...okay so maybe that wasn't everyone else's priority, but just mine.
As college students our priority was to just graduate and find that awesome job. Now as a parent, it's to take care of our family.
If you think back through out all of our stages of life, there was always something that stood in the way of our priorities, or became a bigger priority, at least at that moment. As children, it was our parents priorities that typically trumped our own. As teens, it was always trying to impress our friends and making them the priority instead of really figuring out who we were. In college, for me, everyone was getting married, so my priority went from graduating to getting married. Now as a parent, my priority has gone from being an awesome parent, to making sure I go to work, coming home and editing a thousand pictures, and tending to the care of the household...ie: wife, kids, dog, cats, food, house projects, and more.
You may be thinking, "well what's the problem with all of that?" That's a great question. I think the problem has become that we stopped making ourselves a priority in our own lives. We make a lot of sacrifices to take care of everyone else and our families. At some point we must take time for ourselves or we will go completely insane.
From prayer, to showering, to fitness and health, to our own hobbies and interests. If we don't take time for ourselves I truly feel we will become bitter with those that have become the priority over us. I have seen this in friendships. Where one friend wants to monopolize the other friend's time. There has to be a happy medium or that relationship is destine to fail.
If we don't find a happy medium in our own lives for our selves, we are destine to fail.
Now, I am in no way saying turn your back on your responsibilities, or your family and friends, or work. But we have to find a way to put ourselves first some time.
So, if you were to ask me what my New Year's Resolution is...it's to rearrange my priorities; making myself a priority. Stay tuned to see how I plan to prioritize my life...
By the way...what's your New Year's Resolution?