Category: Top » Personal-development » Advice »

Author: gandhi14 | Total views: 21 Comments: 0
Word Count: 689 Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 8:07 PM

How to Be More Resilient:Identify Priorities

When you are under pressure it is important that you focus on what is important and what will, as best you can predict, get you the results you want. There is no point in working frantically and even efficiently, if you are going in the wrong direction.

Worst of all is to find yourself working to help someone else achieve their objectives at the expense of your own!

Energy is limited. Resilient people use theirs wisely and keep going longer. Understanding the basis on which you set priorities and allocate your personal resources is an essential first step in taking action that uses your energy most efficiently to get results.

Use the steps below to get you started.

Step 1. Identify priorities

Make a list of what is important to YOU. What is on your A list? What has medium importance? What are you prepared to let go, if necessary?

It is this third question that is most troublesome. It is not possible to put EVERYTHING on your A list. When you make a decision to put one thing on your A list, you have to make a decision that something else will not be on it. If you make everything top priority, then you have no priorities!

Remember that as your circumstances change, you can change your priorities. A child who is finishing school or a partner who is ill will have priority for a time, until they graduate or get better. Identify what has priority for you NOW and set a date when you will review these priorities.

Your list of priorities is the basis for your decisions from here on.

Step 2. Learn to say No

Identify the things that are not on your A list of priorities and that you are doing because they are important to someone else. You can often recognise these things from the resentment and frustration with which you do them.

Resisting demands from others for your time and energy may involve you in some tough conversations but until you learn to say No, you will forever be chasing down the priorities of other people at the expense of you own.

How much energy could you save if you said No more often?

Step 3. Remove the trivia

Examine how much time you spend on things that contribute little to your life. When every moment and every ounce of energy is important, can you afford to waste it? It could be that you watch lots of TV; or maybe you spend time with people whose companionship means little to you. When energy is precious, you should care-take how you spend it.

How much can you save by choosing not to waste it on trivia?

Step 4. Get out of crisis mode

How much of your time do you spend reacting to problems? You react to the biggest crisis, the most senior person, the most important customer and your most troublesome employee. Then when you finish reacting, if you ever do, there is no time, or energy, left for doing anything else.

It is not possible to avoid crises completely; but at least some may be avoidable. You might even be creating crises for yourself if you are addicted to the adrenalin rush that you get from working under pressure on important issues. Sometimes being in crisis mode is a choice!

Stop and ask yourself if it is a good choice for you and the people who are close to you. If being in crisis mode is absorbing too much of your energy, make some different choices.

Step 5. Reallocate energy to your priorities

Now you can take the time and energy that you saved in Steps 2,3 and 4 and apply it to achieving your priorities. You will soon start to see an improvement in the results you get in areas that are most important to you and in the quality of your life.

About the Author

Maureen Collins trains people how to handle difficult conversations, on difficult topics, with difficult people in her consulting practice, Straight Talk. She has a B.Sc. degree in Psychology from Edinburgh University and over 25 years of consulting experience. She consults in communication in the workplace. Download free e-books and get free Straight Talk Tips. http://www.straight-talk.co.za

Rate, comment or bookmark this article

Seed Newsvine

Bookmark this article in your preferred program

Comments

No comments posted.

Add Comment

HTML code

Popular Articles in this cathegory

1: Top 10 Reasons Why You Just Messed Up The Law Of Attraction

You have just learnt about The Law of Attraction. You are genuinely really excited because for the first time you see a solution for improving your life and getting what you want.So you whole-heartedl..

2: How To Have A Solar-heated Home Without Solar Panels

Would you like your new house to be warm in the winter and cool in the summer without the use of air-conditioning, heating, or even solar power panels You can

3: Easy Visualization Exercises You Can Do In Just Minutes

Visualization is a simple process that can have a profound effect on your life. Following are several visualization exercises that are easy to do and can help you master visualization with only a little practice.

4: 20 Excellent Conversation Questions Everyone Loves

Once you have experimented asking questions for a while, you will realize just how great questions are for starting conversations, helping them flow and for getting to know someone better. Now it is t..

5: 6 Great Small Talk Topics for Every Situation

Do you regard finding a small talk topic during conversations to be an ardous chore? You are not alone - many people think that making small talk is a particularly hard thing to do. But there are ways..

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.