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We all have priorities. If you asked the average person, we’d probably all say we value certain things – family, relationships, maybe religion (depending on your personal beliefs). These things are good “pat answers” to the question, “what do you value?”

That being said, we also have things we need. On balance, we need food, a roof over our head, and enough money/resources to enable us to function. Because the things in this group are necessities, they have a habit of developing a louder, more urgent voice than they’re entitled to have.

Visualize with me here.

Imagine, right now, one of your close relatives is suddenly diagnosed with a major illness. There are a million unanswered questions, and until the doctors run a lengthy series of tests there isn’t even a glimmer of an answer to any of them. Then a friend of yours makes what was initially thought to be a doctor visit for a check-up, and winds up almost dying during a diagnostic test.

Take a moment to try to imagine. Get a clear picture in your head.

Now….what would that do to the gulf between what you say your priorities are, and what they actually are?

The thing is, these situations aren’t hypothetical. For millions of people every day, they’re very real. Many of these people thought they’d have a couple more decades to accumulate wealth, then another decade or two to enjoy it. When that all changes in the blink of an eye, they’re suddenly left confronting the difference between what they say they value, and what they’ve actually valued.

If they’re fortunate, they get time to make things right. Some aren’t so fortunate.

The thing is, everybody has the opportunity to have that conversation with themselves at will; they just don’t. What if, once each week, each of us took just a few minutes (fifteen would be plenty!) and evaluated how our lives, in the present, line up with the things we claim to value?

If we’re out of whack, I’m betting we’d have enough spare time left over in that fifteen minutes to quickly do something to set things back on the right track. If we’re on target, we can approach the next week knowing that what we’ll be doing is exactly what we should be doing. Either way, we have peace of mind in knowing we’re going the right direction – and that’s a great feeling to have.

I’ll leave you with a corny quote that has a lot of truth – “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow isn’t certain. Today is a gift – that’s why it’s called ‘the present'”.