Day 6: Set Priorities
If you have been following along with the Back to You Challenge, we’ve spent the last several days doing something that can be surprisingly difficult: paying attention to ourselves.
We started by checking in.
How is your energy?
How is your stress?
How is your mood?
How are your relationships?
How satisfied are you with your life overall?
Then we started letting go of some of the things we don't necessarily need to carry into this season. We thought about where we could make more space. We named some of the things we need. And yesterday, we looked at our boundaries. Now comes the part where we have to decide:
What actually matters to me right now?
You Don’t Have to Do Everything
There is something about September that makes everything feel possible.
New school year.
New schedules.
New routines.
New goals.
New activities.
New projects.
This is where things can get a little dangerous. Because a fresh start can easily turn into a giant list of everything we think we should be doing. Work harder, exercise more, eat better, spend more time with the kids, save money…
And somehow you’re supposed to do all of this whale also maintaining a career, relationships, a household, and some semblance of sanity.
No wonder you are overwhelmed. Sometimes we don’t have a prioritization problem. We have an “everything feels important” problem.
Your priorities are not Your To-Do List
A priority is not simply something that needs to get done. There are plenty of things that need to get done that aren’t actually priorities (think of your daily task list from laundry to planning meals). But those things don’t necessarily tell you what matters most to you at this particular time in your life. Your priorities are things you want to intentionally protect because they reflect what matters to you. Priorities change. This comes with age, experience, family structure, and a million other things that can change over time. There isn’t a single correct list of priorities that you’re supposed to have as a woman.
Your job isn’t to choose the priorities that look good on paper. It’s to figure out what is important to you.
Go Back to Your Day 1 Check-In
What rating do you want to change?
Go back to days 2-5
What do you want to let go of and make space for?
What boundaries need attention?
Now ask: What do these answers tell me about what I need to prioritize?
If your energy was a 2 and your stress was a 1, you might not want to prioritize another goal. Maybe you want to prioritize rest and work on reducing the load you carry.
If your relationships were rated low, perhaps connection needs to become more intentional.
You get the idea.
Choose Three
For today’s challenge, I want you to choose three priorities for this season.
You can have plenty of things on your to-do list. But when everything becomes a priority, nothing really gets your intentional attention.
Your three priorities could be:
My relationship
My mental health
My career
My physical health
My children
My friendships
My finances
Rest
Personal growth
Creativity
Community
Fun
Spirituality
Time alone
There is no wrong answer. And your priorities don't have to be particularly impressive.
“Have more fun” is a perfectly legitimate priority.
So is “sleep.”
So is “spend more time with my friends.”
So is “figure out what I actually want next.”
Ask Yourself What you Would protect
Here's the question I want you to sit with:
If I stopped trying to do everything, what would I want to make sure I still made time for?
That question can be surprisingly revealing. Because sometimes we discover that the things taking up the most space in our lives aren't the things we actually value the most.
And sometimes we discover that something we keep saying is important isn't actually receiving any of our time or energy.
That's not necessarily a reason to feel guilty. It's an invitation to make a different choice.
Do your priorities match your calendar?
The most difficult and possibly uncomfortable part of this process…
Look at your actual calendar for the next couple of weeks ahead and ask:
Does my calendar reflect my priorities?
Needs and priorities might change in the next season. And that is normal. But tune in to what you need right now.
Go back to your Day 1 check-in.
Look at your ratings. Think about what you've identified during Days 2–5.
Then choose three priorities for this season.
Write them down:
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
Then answer:
If I stopped trying to do everything, what would I want to make sure I still made time for?
Finally, look at your calendar and choose one small change that would better align your time with one of your priorities.
It doesn't have to be dramatic. It just has to be intentional.
Tomorrow is Day 7!
We'll take everything you've learned about yourself and turn it into a September intention. A simple statement about how you want to feel and how you want to move into this next season
Don’t forget to grab the free workbook to work through the daily prompts.
Share here, on IG and/or Facebook, and in your workbook. Don’t forget to use #backtoyouchallenge
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