How are your 2026 priorities coming?
Priorities! What priorities do you hold near and dear? You know the ones you don’t let anything interrupt, except maybe if you or someone close to you is bleeding, vomiting or dying**. Two of my big priorities, things I will absolutely schedule around are dentist and haircut appointments. One is for preventative care to keep me healthy and the other is for mental health and sanity. As a person with short hair it drives me nuts when my hair gets too long, it messes with my confidence and throws me off balance. That and trying to reschedule is almost impossible because my stylist carries a full schedule, although I think she’d schedule me in if it was an emergency. I get on her books two haircuts in advance, that way I’m ahead in case I need to schedule a business engagement.
I know this isn’t everyone’s priorities, we each have our own and the unique ways we handle them. This year I’m trying to be diligent about prioritizing my business and personal goals and thinking intentionally before I add any new and shiny fun objects to the list. I tend to get excited about new things and conveniently forget about all the work I put into planning, identifying goals and desires, and chartering a course to accomplish those. It usually ends up with me reflecting in December and feeling crappy about how I didn’t launch what I’d hoped to or accomplish goals that I had very good intentions of reaching. And it feels yucky. Have you ever done that?
It comes down to changing habits and purposefully choosing not listening to the critic, negative voice, or the “evil hedgehog” on your shoulder whispering that no one is going to notice or care if you don’t work on that today and push it to tomorrow. And when you’re tired, have a headache or don’t feel well, it is easy to listen to that inner voice urging you to go down the road where you don’t want to be.
My vow for the new year is to hold my priorities sacred. The one to honor my goals and do the work to make them happen. To stick to my work blocks and the stepping stones that requires to lay the ground work, do the research, send in the proposals, reach out to contacts, ask for insight, write a blog once a month, put myself out there and be visible, even when its uncomfortable, despite what my “evil hedgehog” is saying and give myself grace when I fail.
And please don’t feel bad if I share that I can’t make something because I have a dentist or haircut appointment, that is of course unless you are bleeding, vomiting or dying…then I’m on it.
(**Side note: When my kids were growing up that’s what I would say to them when I needed them to be patient and wait for me to respond. If they were bleeding, vomiting or dying I would stop whatever I was doing and help, otherwise they could hold tight until I was finished.)
