Each year I host the Prioritize and Empower You Retreat where we take the first three days and deconstruct our understanding of why we work as hard as we do, to the place where we are bone tired and exhausted. This mindset was crafted by people in our communities who just wanted the best for us and taught us the best that they knew at the time. But now we are empowered to make a different decision and learn the tools and techniques to employ to ensure that we are not saying yes when we know we should say no, that we are not taking on projects for which we have no room to handle, and we are allowing people to make us superwomen and they won't even provide a place for us to hang our cape at night. In other words, we are creating the recipe to overcome burnout, overwork, overwhelm, and stress. We then move into three months of post-retreat coaching where every week we are learning more skills and modalities to help support us in this new self-prioritized life.
I share this with you so you know that each person that you meet in this world is going through a similar struggle: taking care of everyone else first, leaving themselves last, and struggling with the consequences of their decisions. The difference between you and them is that you are taking the time by reading this article to do something different as far as your understanding about what a successful life looks like.
Society would have us believe that having a self-centered life is selfish. But most of us view the world from the lens of self. With very few exceptions, such as when we have small children or we are caring for a person with some ailment that prevents them from being self-sufficient, we are looking through the lens of what is best for me.
That is just one part of the question.
The other part is where self-prioritization comes in to answer it. It is what is the best way for me to love better and to show up fully so that I may bring this love to the world? It’s not about comfort, it's about fulfillment. It’s not about happiness, it's about joy. It’s not about quietness and contentedness, it’s about peace.
Self-prioritization is the setup and foundation for a life of loving and sharing with others. When we are strong, then we are able to empower others.
When we are confident, then we can cheer someone else on.
When we are healthy, we can support healthy decisions.
This is the key to self-prioritization.
It is understanding that by taking the first step of working on ourselves, then we can move on to supporting others as they go through the work, too. Notice I said supporting others as they do the work. As we know in most ventures people learn by doing.
So there is the practical portion where you learn why things happen and how they happen, but you must also actually engage in the action so you understand how to do the action.
For instance, you can read a cook book, but if no cooking actually takes place, then no food will be available to eat. That is not the goal - we want to feast. I do not want concepts of a pie. I want the pie!
Self-prioritization is your pie.
And you determine how well that pie is prepared by taking care of things in your life that you know hijack you.
If you know that getting up early is a problem for you, then go to bed earlier.
If you know that exercising is a problem for you, then join active activities that you enjoy.
If you know you do not like your job, then learn the skills you need to get the job that calls to your spirit.
But you must be honest with yourself when you ask these questions so that you can get to the bottom of the issue.
So I am asking you today to take a look at your life and see where you have not been totally and completely honest about how you feel about certain things. That discontentment is going to be the catalyst to redesigning your life so that you are at the center of it and are the first priority in it.
Dr Lynita Mitchell Blackwell is the Intuitive Business Coach who leads her clients to the ultimate successful life of peace, joy and fulfilment. Lynita is the best selling author of six books including Get Your Money Right in 30 Days and Live Life on Fire.
Are you ready to broadcast, showcase and spotlight your empowered mission and message, to connect with midlife women globally?
Conscious Female LeadHers, coaches, and healers, speakers, artists, visionary wayshower
Comments