ICMOR

Challenge Part Two: Priorities

Look at what your most important priority or priorities are, and make them your most important things. This may sound like a no-brainer but we can all get caught up in other things, things going on around us, things we think we want, when a lot of times those are things that other people want or things others want for us. How do we know? Well break it down, what would you not be willing to do without?

If this were an emergency-- what are the things that are absolutely the most important to you?

If peace/ease is your priority and you are becoming frustrated over not getting that new _____ (house, car, high-paying yet stressful job) then you are choosing to forfeit your priority of peace and ease for something less important. Sometimes these things can be sneaky, and it can be helpful to take a step back and look.

When I was going into twists over these sorts of things myself, the one thing I did not want to hear was that I had to choose one thing or another-- I mean, that's the old way, right? We're creators, why can't we have all of the above? All of our joys?

Well we don't get there from twisting in frustration, for starters.

If health and well-being is your priority and you just can't stand to go to that dinner with those people that literally make you feel ill, then don't go. Write yourself a permission slip if you need one. Decisions start to be made according to top priority/ies and all else can slide by the wayside (temporarily if that's the way you need to look at it or deal with it, but eventually, for good). (and good it is.)

We are getting to the stage now where those sorts of expectations & obligations have become more than inconveniences-- not a comfortable space at all, and there's a very good reason for that. The emotion is a communication that says this is not in alignment with who we really are. We intended more for ourselves, thriving with our joys.

We are in a society now where it is more socially acceptable to be be sick than to say no, to be medicated for depression than it is to make better choices. "But I can't stop going to those dinner parties..." "But I have to do these things..." "But I don't have time to do those things I would like to..." "But I have to take the medication, I don't understand why I don't feel happy." Are we listening?

~

if you're not interested in a Vold rant, this would be a good place to stop reading.

In a nutshell, we don't have time for this sh!t anymore. Things are getting intense and if folks aren't willing to choose their most important things then yes misery or at the very least boredom prevails. Soul wastage. Things will keep getting worse and keep getting worse until we can't stand it any more and either check out or make changes. (there's a novel idea, making changes.) That's the beauty of extreme situations, there's no room for dinner party obligational nonsense. This is our prerogative, we get to be miserable if we feel like it, we get to do that playing the part of "not really me", but is that who you really want to be?

People make excuses, they won't do what they know they need to do for their joy. Who is going to do it then? You are the only you there is. You may have lived other lifetimes here but This You most likely didn't come here to futz around and make excuses. Do It. Follow your joy, your bliss, your contentment, your excitement. Whatever your priorities are, make them your most important things. And don't let the other stuff slide in there and get in the way. Make a big poster with a sharpie if you have to-- "Most Important Thing."

These things are 'not nice', we're not supposed to say this stuff about people being medicated, people having hard times.. that we are supposed to actually make different choices and take different action. Would it really be nicer to keep quiet? I was one of those people. One of the things that helped snap me out of it was that someone did not keep their mouth shut. People wander around lost, bored, frustrated, angry, confused, depressed, Missing Themselves... the plan didn't work out quite right-- or it did work out just like it was supposed to but didn't make us happy... we put ourselves to sleep, we say what can we do, we go on making donuts and ignoring our passion screaming below the surface. Or we stop and decide to make some changes, according to what is most important to self.

"Oh but that's impulsive." GREAT. If you have the means to do it and you're not squashing anybody else's blueberries in the meantime, why hold back? "But I might not even continue it." So What? Thinking here of a friend talking about playing a musical instrument. So What if you don't continue it? Does the world fall apart then? This is old programming talking, we're "supposed to" stick with one thing forever and master it-- what about FUN? If you don't like it after a while then you sell it and move on to the next joy. Then move on to the next joy. (If we're playing avoidance of self it will pinch us anyway so we can look at it, but many of us are squelching self and that IS the avoidance.) And move on to the next joy. Or maybe adore it and continue it, or maybe do a combination of things that we had not even seen before, but we will never know if we keep squashing our own desire.

 

The great news is that if we're in a space where it feels like we can only have one thing or the other, and we choose our top priorities, then we can be enjoying ourselves while the other stuff is percolating. :) And if we really are enjoying, percolate it will. I had said things are getting intense; I didn't mean just on the rough end of the stick. Follow bliss, ride the wave, and launch. :)

2007 Beth Shearon