In day to day life, there are priorities that are usually left behind or that are simply not paid enough attention than they require. Unfortunately, whether you want it or not these priorities will sooner or later come knocking at your door. And sadly, this usually happens when it is too late.
Let’s get into why it is sometimes necessary for a disaster or accident to happen to force people to prioritize. Let’s also see what is the element that helps you avoid those difficult situations.
I think, most of us, have heard a story that goes like this: a couple of weeks ago a friend asked me to pray for her church’s Pastor. This caught my attention, because we don’t usually get this kind of petitions. I told my friend that I would totally do that for her, but I asked her to explain to me a bit more what the matter was. She told me that the Pastor was at the hospital in a very grave situation due to her high sugar and cholesterol levels which had caused a series of complications that affected his heart. But, thanks to the medical attention and his collaboration to getting better, he was now well.
I think you know the rest of the story; if this Pastor hadn’t made his health a priority, the next part of the story would have been more unfortunate.
If we look at this matter from a business point-of-view, we can use as an example the fact that in the USA, according to the Office of Small Business Administration (SBA) in its 2018 report, it was confirmed that up to 80% of small businesses survive to their first year. A surprisingly high number, even more so when taking into consideration the general belief that most businesses fail during their first year.
However, it is a different story after the first year, where this number falls drastically. Only half of the small businesses that survive make it through the 5-year mark, with a range of 45 to 51% depending on the year the business started. Beyond this period, only one in three small businesses makes it to the 10-year mark and lives to tell the tale. I am sure that these businesses that made it did the adjustments at the right time both in their priorities and their strategic planning.
These types of stories, which I hope is not one of yours, can be seen and heard frequently. As an executive coach, mentor and trainer, I come across this kind of things daily. I hear over and over again stories in which if the right decisions were taken, if priorities were established, and if the resources were managed this or another way, the results would have been different.
As I have mentioned before, one of the challenges that exists to carefully choose our priorities and avoid the continuous waste of resources, and as we have seen today, the occurrence of a series of consequences that can prove to be fatal, is that we are highly committed and passionate about some important areas of our life and not in others. In those areas that we are not, we must use our responsibility, our reason, and our compromise.
This topic is not new at all; however, the novelty is starting to employ a plan based on priorities so that starting today different results are achieved. We must not wait for something dramatic to happen in our lives or our businesses. If you are not making decisions in your day to day life based on your priorities and you continue not having a plan that helps you to make decisions according to them, you are literally exposing yourself to a high risk of having devastating results.
Don’t waste more precious time without taking the correct action. Establish your priorities and improve your personal and business strategy with the help of an executive coach.
Question: Do you have a plan for your priorities?