8 simple ways to make yourself a priority
Do you struggle with making yourself a priority?
I love being a wife a mom and now beginning my journey as an entrepreneur. I think all three of these roles are what help make my life beautiful. Though not always easy I love the roles I have as a mom, wife, and entrepreneur. Many of us take on a lot of roles in our lives, but we don’t know how to take care of ourselves. Here are eight simple ways you can make yourself more of a priority.
When I decided to start running my blog and growing it into an online business, I began connecting with other bloggers and entrepreneurs. One common trait of entrepreneurs I know in my real life, and many moms are that they tend to be very busy and overwhelmed in their lives. I understand this because especially in the beginning of starting a business so much is your responsibility. If not 100% of running the business.
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I also know as a wife and mother a lot of time we become the last priority in our lives. Things get busy, and not everything can get done in the hours available in the day. I think it’s important for everyone to learn ways to make yourself a priority.
I’ve learned from life experience and going through a lot of things in my life that one of the best ways to help your family and get more accomplished is by making yourself a priority. If you don’t take care of yourself, then you won’t be able to take care of your family or what needs to get done. So here are my simple ways you can make yourself more of a priority. Try doing these 8 things and taking care of yourself so you have more to give to others.
1. Get enough sleep
Doing this is so important for your health and your well-being. I know when life is busy and your to-do list is a mile long the impulse may be to go to bed late and get up early. You feel like you are wasting valuable time that you could be working.
The truth is that if you aren’t getting enough sleep, you are putting yourself at risk of getting sick more often. Then you will be potentially out of commission for days. Also, sleep-deprived mind and body are not able to get as much accomplished. You would be able to get more done in less time if your brain and body were better rested.
2. Make time each day for things you love
This is one thing that drives me crazy. I know so many women who are so busy all they time and work so hard and never make time for things that they love to do. You only get one chance at life and although I know that there are lots of things we have to do. To me, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t get to do things that we love to do.
We all have different hobbies and interests. It doesn’t matter what it is that you love doing, you should find the time to fit it into your life. Maybe not as much as you are doing other things. You need to reward yourself for all the time you spend taking care of your family and your business. By taking some time for yourself.
It doesn’t have to be a lot of time. Just taking 30 minutes for yourself can leave you feeling relaxed and refreshed. You are important and if you feel overwhelmed and stressed you won’t be at your best. Since you probably can’t take an extended time away from your responsibilities set a goal to spend 30 minutes on you a couple of times a week.
3. Setting boundaries with people in your life
This topic is something I’ve written about before. You can check out my post on setting boundaries here. It is such a life changer once you learn how to set boundaries with the people in your life. I think that when we don’t set limits on our time and what is acceptable to us. It shows that we undervalue how important we are.
If you work hard and are a kind person which I think most of us are then we deserve to be respected and have people value our time and what matters to us.
4. Learn to delegate responsibilities at home and work
I learned this lesson the hard way in my early 20’s. So I was married at 19, and we had our daughter right before I turned 22. My husband worked full time, and I worked part-time as a nanny, so I could make some money, and I was allowed to bring my daughter. I also was going to school part time. Then at home, I still did most of the chores and things. I didn’t know how to talk to my husband about the fact that I needed help. I wanted him to figure it out and being young and naive I thought he would be able to. Instead, I kept letting that tension build up and it was hard few years on our marriage.
Being older and somewhat wiser I’ve learned that I can have my husband do more around the house. I just need to be more clear about what needs to get done and negotiate responsibilities. Also having an older child, we are working with her to take care of her things and do chores around the house.
Right now I run my blog and business on my own, but this lesson of delegating responsibilities applies to work as well. When the time comes that I can afford a virtual assistant I will be getting one. It will be nice to have help with some of my least favorite blogging and business tasks.
5. It’s alright to ask for help when you need it
Now for me, #4 and #5 on this list go together. Not only did I not know how to delegate I also didn’t feel right about asking for help. Which looking back now was just so dumb of me. I had great people in my life who would have helped me, but I had this mental block of not wanting to ask for help.
I knew I needed help, but I was afraid and embarrassed to ask for help. So I tried to handle everything on my own. I ended up causing myself so much stress internally that it lead to me getting ill. I ended up having a massive stroke at the age of 25 which was more than likely due to all the stress I was putting on myself.
So from that moment on, I made the promise to myself and my family that I would speak up and ask for help when I needed it. It still isn’t something I enjoy to do but I know the consequences of not asking for help and putting too much on myself.
Remember a healthy and less stressed you is going to be a better you for all areas of yourself for your personal and business life. So when life becomes too hard because you have too much on your plate or a problem you can’t solve, then ask for help.
6. Try to get things done, not perfect
My motto with most areas of my life is, done not perfect. Sure doing things perfect would be ideal and sometimes things turn out pretty great and nearly perfect. Sometimes they don’t though. As busy people, we have a lot of balls in the air at any given moment, and it can be hard to admit that there just isn’t enough time. That’s why I focus on done.
So to get more done on my list so that I can maybe free up some more time for fun. I don’t go for perfect. Now there are going to be tasks that I work harder on and want to do better, but I think perfection on almost anything is impossible.
7. Be your own cheerleader
You have to stick up for yourself and realize your worth. That’s the only way you will become a priority in your life. If you are waiting for others to make you the priority in your life. That’s not going to happen. You have to realize that being happy, healthy and treating yourself the way you deserve. Has to start with you first.
I think you know that you are important and that you can do great things. It’s just difficult to make yourself a priority sometimes. Everyone has great potential in them. I also know that too often we put the needs of everyone else ahead of ourselves. The thing is that I see too many women not make themselves a priority and it costs them their health, happiness, and success.
8 Learn to Say no
One of the best ways to take care of yourself and begin to learn to make yourself a priority is to learn the power of saying no. By saying yes to doing things that you don’t have the time for or that you don’t want to do you are in effect saying no to yourself.
Because if you use all your time doing things you don’t want to do you are making yourself not a priority and making less time for what is really important
I hope you take in the information in this post and start putting yourself higher on your priority list. I also really hope that you will start taking more time for yourself and making yourself a priority. Taking a little bit of time is not selfish but healthy and good for you. It’s also an excellent example for others in your life, especially your children. If they don’t see you prioritize yourself, they won’t learn to take care of themselves.
