If I was given $1,000,000, what would I do with it?

Compelling questions help to focus us to think more deeply and opens the door to self-examination.

Every now and then, you may ponder the complexities and maybe even some chaos in your life. You might struggle to figure out what's next. Maybe you feel confused at times about which way to go. When I’ve wrestled with what I should do next, this question has helped me to focus on what I think is important. In short, it helps me to determine my priorities. If you have you thought about setting your life priorities to make your life easier, here are some things to consider:

When you're struggling to determine what's important to you, it's hard to make decisions. What will you do next? Where will you go for the evening? Who will you choose to pass the time with?

Feeling torn between two or more people, places, or ideas is common if you haven't yet identified your priorities. After all, when you consider everything and everyone in your life as all-equal in terms of their "level" of importance, it's going to be tough to choose what to do next.

Setting your life priorities is a way of identifying what's most important to you. Once you determine your priorities, you'll be pleased with the ease of making decisions and the serenity that comes with knowing you did the right thing.

Establishing priorities also gives you a clearer focus on how to allot your time. If you allot the bulk of your time to doing what's most important with the most important people in your life, you'll feel more fulfilled and satisfied with your life experiences.

Common Life Priorities

What might your priorities be? The possibilities are endless. In the list below, you'll find many common priorities in no particular order. Feel free to use the list as inspiration to help you figure out your own priorities.

• Family

• Finances

• Friends

• Extended family

• Work

• Hobbies

• Personal appearance

• Health and physical exercise/activities

• Nutritious eating

• "Alone-time" with partner

• Quality time with the children

• Playing games on the internet

• Talking on the phone

• Watching television

Example of a "Prioritized" Listing of Life Priorities

The whole idea of setting priorities is to put the many elements of your life into an order, with those that are most important to you at the top. Knowing your highest priority on the list is necessary in order to make focused, wise decisions that are right for you.

Consider this next list, which is prioritized, as an example of someone's life priorities (in order).

1. Family

2. Alone-time with partner

3. Work

4. Health and physical exercise

5. Nutritious eating

6. Friends

7. Watching television

8. Personal appearance

9. Hobbies - movies and reading

Coming Up With Your Own Priorities

Setting your priorities in life may take time and effort. However, taking the time to reflect on your day-to-day life and determine what's on the top of your list will make your life so much easier. Once your priorities are clear to you, decisions on how to spend your time and with who will be a cinch.

Engaging in this exercise of figuring out your priorities might reveal some things that shock or surprise you. For example, you might realize that you're spending most of your time hanging out with friends even though you feel that your family is more important. Or you aren't taking as much care with your kids as you thought you were.

Regardless of what you discover, setting your priorities now will help you limit or even remove the less-important elements of your life and enable you to focus more fully on what means the most to you.

You can live more joyfully by setting your life priorities. Knowing what's important to you and devoting your time to those things at the top of your list will ensure you experience an enriched and fulfilled life. Set your life priorities today.