Your Priority List

To be successful we need to manage our lives effectively. And to manage our lives effectively, we need to manage our priorities effectively. Therefore, we need a list - a priority list.

What is a priority list? Simple put - it records all of your priorities. What is a priority? It is simply something which is important to you and therefore deserves your immediate attention.

Why do we need a priority list? That is because many people are confused between urgent matters and important matters.

The urgent matters are things that you need to attend to because the situation warrants it. These matters may or may not make a material difference in your quest for success. They are merely things that you feel compelled to do as there seems to be a tremendous sense of urgency.

The important things, however, may not seem to be urgent at all, but it is the effective completion (or lack of completion) of these things that will make you a success or a failure.

The pace of modern life is fast, so fast in fact that if our ancestors were alive today, they would be dumbfounded by the speed at which things are taking place. I am sure that even if geniuses like Newton and Einstein were still around, they would find it very difficult to adapt themselves to the breathtaking pace of the scientific and technological breakthroughs being made today.

Therefore, in the extremely fast paced environment like the one we live in, it is easy to get lost in all the hustle and bustle. When this happens, we can easily lose focus and may subsequently even lose out in the game. We must therefore have our priorities right. And to have our priorities right, we need a priority list.

Ask yourself these two questions:

1. What is your ultimate goal?
2. What do you think you need to do to make sure you achieve your ultimate goal?

Now that you have answered these two questions, do the following:

Get a blank piece of paper, pick up your pen, take a deep breath, count from one to three, and then start writing down all the things that you must do in order to achieve your vision. Continue to write without stopping for the next three minutes.

Done? Good.

Now take a look at your list. What you are looking at is a list of the important things that you must do in order to achieve your vision. And what you must do now is to do exactly what you listed in your priority list. Make sure you do not move on to the second item if the first one has not yet been acted upon.

You may be amazed at how much you may have to change in order to follow the list that you have drafted for yourself. You will be amazed that, while you have always known what would make you successful, how little you actually put these things into practice in your daily life.

However, if all the things on your list are the exact things that you do on a daily basis, I offer you my sincerest congratulations! I am very sure that you are already a very successful person, or at least satisfied with your current level of achievement.

By now you should understand why you are as successful as you are or why you are not as successful as you could have been. Success is not something complex. Do not complicate it. If you simply practice and follow what I taught you in this article, I can assure you - your success will be imminent.

“Life is about constantly going beyond limits!”
- Erican Chong