Sorting Out Your Priorities

Knowing yourself and having your priorities in order will really help you throughout life. When you know yourself and what means the most to you it makes every decision much simpler. This is especially useful when choosing your subjects, university or career. Obviously things change and you can always reevaluate, but it’s a good idea to organise your mind and what’s important to you. This will help you make better decisions and ease your mind. Here are some things to consider when sorting our your priorities:

Organisation

Organisation is vital to both you personal and professional life. Working out your priorities will help you to organise yourself and the world around you in a more efficient way. When you know what’s important to you, you can set clear, achievable goals.

Mindfulness

Don’t neglect yourself and your needs. Practising mindfulness can clear your mind and help you to relax. You need to be in a clear, relaxed and positive state of mind to really understand yourself. If you are upset or angry, your decisions won’t be well thought out and may harm you in the long run. Make sure you take good care of yourself. Self-care is so important!

Peer Pressure

Try not to let pressure from others affect your decisions. You need to work out what is good for you. It can be helpful to listen to others’ opinions but make sure that your decisions are your own.

Getting Started

A good way to start is by writing down three things that mean the most to you. Once you have done this, you can put them into categories such as social, education/career and personal. Perhaps start by focusing on the areas that are most relevant to you right now. Once you have done this, you can elaborate by adding three more points, one to each category. Sometimes they will overlap but that’s OK. Remember that this is just the first step and that you don’t need to show this list to anyone. If you become overwhelmed then take a break and come back to it later. You just need to get a basic list of things that really matter to you at first.

This list can help you figure things out in so many aspects of your life, such as which career to pursue or whether you should get a weekend job. For example, if you want to be a doctor, consider your grades, the favourite subject, and if the lifestyle would suit you. If it’s realistically achievable then great! If not, look at other relevant areas of study and careers that align more with your list of priorities.

There are so many options out there! It can be very overwhelming. Just remember to take it one step at a time. Once you have an idea of the career you would like, it may be time to think about universities. Look at which universities offer the best education for your needs. Think about location, funding, social factors and so on. This is where your list of priorities can help you out again. Focus on what is most important, whether it's the location, the prestige of the university or even the student life.

So give it a go, get to know yourself and what matters most to you!