Whether or not you set them yourself, you live your life based on priorities.
Going to work or school is a priority and the reason you get out of bed in the morning. At some point during the day, eating becomes a priority. Is your car getting low on gasoline? Then filling up becomes a priority. Even deciding to sit around on a Saturday and do nothing becomes the priority activity for you.
We allow others to define our priorities when we don’t set them ourselves.
There are times this needs to happen. Our boss may decide what our assignments are and when they are due. Our spouse or significant other may “suggest” some important things for us to do. A teacher may assign a research project that must be completed to pass the class. These are just a couple examples of important priorities outside our control, but that doesn’t mean our entire day is set this way.
Imagine a box where you and others are standing around it. Your spouse/significant other, boss or teacher go first with some mandatory priority activities they place in the box. Then it’s your turn. Do you fill up the rest of the box with your activities or just stand there looking at it? The catch is, after a short time others will start filling up the box if you don’t. Wait too long and you may only have space left to add one or two activities, or by the time you react, the box may be full.
Is this important? Yes. Highly successful people did not become successful by allowing everyone else to set their priorities. They controlled as much of the space as possible in the box to ensure their activities received their focus and effort.
What goals do you have for your life? Where do you want to be ten to fifteen years from now? What do you have to do to make that happen? What are the priorities in your life such as family? Now, take those activities and make sure they make it into the box every day. Don’t allow others to crowd your priority activities out of the box. Your success with your life goals and priorities are directly tied to how successful you are at managing the contents in the box.