A Journaling Exercise to Help You Prioritize What Really Matters
“Get your priorities straight.” I’m sure we’ve all had this said to us or maybe even spoken this to someone in our lives. Trying to figure out what is truly important to us can be hard living in a world where we have quick access to pretty much anything we could ever want. Money, friends, possessions, music, entertainment, everyone else’s lives. You name it, and you can probably find a way to get it in 24 hours. So, in a world of instant access, how do we figure out which of those things are, or should be important to us?
Hopefully I can help you get started on that journey today! I encourage you to consider, journal and process through these three questions.
1. What do I value?
There are no wrong answers to this question! Friends, family, alone time, reading, music, Jesus, work, sports, fashion… The possibilities are endless, but I do encourage you to pick 3-5 top values that are musts in your life.
2. What do I want to maintain, improve and change?
Looking at your list of 3-5 values, I want you to answer which of these values you would like to…
Maintain: Meaning you feel as though you have done a good job of making this a priority and you want to keep it the same.
Improve: You haven’t been making this a priority as much as you would like, and you want to give it more time or space.
Change: Maybe you have not been keeping this priority the way you would like to or there is another priority you need to value more than this one.
3. What small things can I do to implement these changes?
I encourage you to process and journal this question because it can be easy to see what needs to change, but making the change in the real world can be daunting. We don’t have to change our entire life overnight — chances are that would fail miserably. But, if you can take one small step at a time, those small changes eventually will completely reshape your life.
As I challenge you to journal through the above three questions, I am going to throw on my favorite journaling playlist and do some journaling of my own. If you’d like to do the same, here’s my playlist on Spotify!
Here’s my journaling response, if you need some inspiration!
One of the biggest priorities in my life is my friends. I love spending time, experiencing new things, and having great conversations with them. As much as I value my friends, I think I need to make changes to this priority. What I have noticed in spending a ton of time with my friends is I have not been getting a good amount of sleep, which affects my ability to focus on work. Since I spend so much time away from home, the laundry piles up, and I don’t spend as much time as I’d like making home-cooked meals. I spend time with big groups of friends, but I miss the intentional time I used to spend with just a few people at a time.
I think a small change I can make is to pick one night a week where I choose to stay home, regardless of what others are doing. I can use that time to be productive in the home, get a full night’s sleep, and maybe even invite just one friend over to spend quality time with them. Although this will not completely flip the way I am spending time with friends now, it is an intentional step in the right direction. I can restore some balance to my life and realign my priorities.
Happy journaling!
If you loved this journaling exercise and are looking for more like it, I’d love for you to check out the Stand Unshaken Collective — we just released some new journaling videos in the membership! You can click the link below for a FREE, 7-day trial to check out our journaling videos and the rest of the Collective’s content and community!