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  Set Your Priorities – You CAN achieve Personal Development Growth!

  

  Friday, October 23rd, 2009

  Do you get to the end of the week and wonder what you got done and realize none of the items on your list have been completed? Do you ever wonder how successful people always seem to get so much done? Are you looking for personal development growth?

  Here’s what I have to say on the subject: you have to really think about what your priorities are. Be honest with yourself about how pushing for your goals affects you; think about why you feel responsible for the things you are responsible for; consider what is important to you.

  List those priorities in order. And when it comes down to it, and your resources are limited, drop everything but the most important ones.

  I really like to use the Bill Murray movie, What about Bob, Where Bill Murray portrays a mentally ill patient, Bob, as an example to explain this.

  You see Bob is seeing a psychiatrist played by Richard Dreyfus. As the story goes Bob is paralyzed by anxiety and cannot travel or live a normal life. His psychiatrist recommends that Bob deal with the anxieties in his life by taking “baby steps.” This philosophy gains national recognition in the movie as a breakthrough for mental health patients.

  In our own lives too, the best thing we can do is to learn to take “baby steps” when it comes to setting priorities.

  Well renown, General Norman Schwartzkoff sums it up beautifully with his ten tips for setting priorities listed below.

  • Give yourself a clear agenda. Every morning write down the five most important things for you to accomplish that day. Whatever else you do, get those five things done. Insist that the people who report to you operate the same way.

  • You must have clear goals and you must be able to articulate them clearly.

  • Let people know where they stand. Everyone knows you do a disservice to a B student when you give him or her an A+.

  • What’s broken, fix now. Don’t put it off.

  • No repainting the flagpole. Make sure all the work your people are doing is essential to the organization.

  • Set high standards. Too often we don’t ask enough from our people.

  • Lay out the concept but let your people execute it. Step back and allow them to work.

  • Never Lie. Ever.

  • When in charge take command. The best policy is to decide, monitor the results and change course when necessary.

  • Do what’s right! The truth is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it!

  

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