Comments on: Priority Management and Life Balance

By: Kent Richardson

Kent Richardson — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:39:00 +0000

Excellent post and great practical insight. I remember my mom would always say at dinner, “Tell me something about your day that will make me say ‘Wow!’” I love the idea of making dinner and meals a time of communing with the family.

By: When Being a Dad is Difficult | A Dad's Journal

When Being a Dad is Difficult | A Dad's Journal — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:20:31 +0000

[...] on this idea a few times. He indicates that if we don’t take care of ourselves first, then the well runs dry. In order for a Dad to serve his wife and kids, he has to take care of himself: read Scripture, [...]

By: Parent Profile: Sarah Lake & How I Find Time With God « Jill Crew

Parent Profile: Sarah Lake & How I Find Time With God « Jill Crew — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:04:12 +0000

[...] it a priority. The more intentional I am about getting that time, the more likely it is to happen. For me, [...]

By: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:37:00 +0000

It will be big for you. And you will be so much more useful to everyone else, including God.

By: levittmike

levittmike — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:50:00 +0000

For your priorities to work, it’s crucial to identify your personal boundaries, and stick to them. When you allow others to interfere with your boundaries, it will cause you imbalance in your life.

Thanks for this post!

Blessings

By: Shelley Sides

Shelley Sides — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:49:00 +0000

Wow. The “self” at #2 threw me for a loop, but you know, there is wisdom there!!! So I shall pray and consider moving “self” from about #16 to #2. This may be big. Thank you for this.

By: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:04:00 +0000

I honestly don’t think gender has anything to do with this particular issue. Thanks.

By: Missy

Missy — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:24:00 +0000

I definitely have a hard time balancing things.
My problem is that I get too much going in each category instead of balancing them all. and most of the time they are things I WANT to do, I just do not have enough hours in the day to do them all.

I’m curious if you think it is easier for you being of the male gender to be able to prioritize and say no to things as opposed to me, being in the female gender. Everyone knows that women like to and are better at multi-tasking. I am sure that makes a difference.

By: What Are Your Life Priorities? « Bodysurfing

What Are Your Life Priorities? « Bodysurfing — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 01:42:53 +0000

[...] and leadership blogger Michael Hyatt recently posted his take on priorities and life balance. It’s a great post and I agree with [...]

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Tue, 31 May 2011 23:34:00 +0000

Very helpful and insightful. When your work is ministry, and God should be permeating all of that, I think things get blurry. It is easy to equate always being available for meetings at 8 pm at night when church members can meet with you, with serving God. It is, and it isn’t. It’s easy to be a workaholic and say you are doing it for God’s glory, and even mean it. But somewhere that nagging voice in your head (I call it the Holy Spirit) let’s you know that you are crossing a line and cheating yourself and your family, and sometimes even God.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 31 May 2011 22:05:00 +0000

This is how I view our spiritual journeys as well, Anne. We Americans are culturally taught to be linear and hierarchical in our thinking (something that is changing in many organizations in the 21st century). I believe it is why we have so little stomach for people who do things differently than we do and are so eager to read about “5 easy steps” to do anything and everything. That said, I believe we are called to something different as Christians.

If Christ is at the center rather than at the end, our paths toward Jesus and transformation toward ever-increasing holiness can look very different depending upon where we begin on the circumference of this metaphorical circle. Rather than walking shoulder to shoulder in the same direction toward Jesus, we have the potential to take completely different, even 180 degree opposite routes and still be walking toward Jesus at the center. I suspect that this is why the men and women we are introduced to in the Bible are both rich and poor, building churches in cities or on the road, traditional or innovative, etc. Rather than see that members of the Body of Christ might be drawn to center…to Jesus…in different ways, we’ve taken to arguing and advocating for our path over those of our brothers and sisters in Christ. I am glad that many of the heroes of our faith were not led to follow a hierarchy like the one described in this post. The stories of many of the prophets, apostles, evangelists and sacrificial servants of God would have been much different if they had. Yet, I am open to the notion that God is using this message at this time for His glory in a way. It is my prayer, however, that people who read this will use it to prompt prayerful discernment about God’s will for their lives rather than a quick-fix how-to.

By: Georgiana

Georgiana — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 21:50:00 +0000

I definitely agree that balance is key to enjoying life to the fullest. Between work and play there needs to be an equilibrium in order to give 100% in everything we commit too. Time alone with God, family bonding time and “me” time all need to be incorporated alongside our daily work agenda. Without these balancing factors we would indeed burn out and be useless to both our business and personal lives.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 02:56:00 +0000

You’ve offered a great example of a balanced lifestyle. I’m struggling to find balance, but determined that such a recipe exists. I adamantly agree with your priorities. I try to take at least 5 minutes every morning for “quiet time” including a devotional (currently working on Oswald Chambers. Last year it was Jesus Calling). At different times in my life I’ve allowed Work & Church (or Community) to supersede Family in my list (although we’ve definitely maintained dinner as ~sacrosanct). And all of these have often risen above Self. I’m working to remember the importance of Self (you’ve captured the essence here – I really like the “airplane safety” image).

By: John Gallagher

John Gallagher — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 03:50:59 +0000

Michael, This post has challenged me recently. I look forward to investing time at the BC Experience this year getting crystal clear on my priorities. My life plan vision and purpose statements need updated based upon my journey AND I need to heed your advice on the realization that I can't do everything…For example, I have simlar accounts as you do AND I have accounts for extended family and friends. I tend to beat myself up pretty good when I fall short on these 2 accounts AND, thus, it affects my other accounts as well as I give energy to this beating… I look forward to the focused time for this and the time with my wife in Oregon as well to manage that account!!

By: Time Leftovers | Honest To God

Time Leftovers | Honest To God — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:03:52 +0000

[...] I am forsaking the ones God naturally gave me to minister to first. I need to reset my priorities (Michael Hyatt has a great article on this and the importance of caring for yourself as a part of your [...]

By: Re-stating priorities « Endlessly Restless

Re-stating priorities « Endlessly Restless — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:54:14 +0000

[...] It’s fair to say that I’ve been clear about my priorities for a long time now. Michael Hyatt helped me to codify them in a blog entry about a year ago, when he listed his priorities in [...]

By: Carlester

Carlester — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:14:07 +0000

I'm speechless! Well, not quite. This is truly humbling as I don't know how many countless paths I've traveled that have led to poor priority management and life unbalance. Michael – thanks for helping to put things into perspective.
My recent post "When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for…"

By: Creating a Life Plan? « Gary Ray's Blog

Creating a Life Plan? « Gary Ray's Blog — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:36:09 +0000

[...] you also want to make sure you cover everything. If you want to know why I put Self second, read my earlier post in answer to the question, “How do you balance work with the rest of your [...]

By: Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:45:50 +0000

Thanks for your kind and encouraging words. I am actually working on a couple of books now, including one on life balance.

By: Chew Keng Sheng

Chew Keng Sheng — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:42:25 +0000

Great post, well written, Mike. I agree with you particularly on the point of taking care of one own self first before taking of others and work.

I find many of your sharing to be warm, personal and engaging, while at the same time, contains nuggets of wisdom that can be easily adapted into my own circumstances.

Would you actually have considered compiling your short inspirational messages into a book?