SELF TALK - PRIORITIES

In order to hold yourself more accountable to the things you should be doing, instead of telling yourself you ‘do not have time’ to do something, tell yourself ‘I am not prioritising’ whatever it is you are deciding to put off. See how that makes you feel! There is quite a lot to dissect in this one today, so here we go. This stemmed from a conversation I had from CrossFit and FitLife owner Joe Murphy last week. Joe is someone with immense dedication to training as he competes in CrossFit and whilst we spoke about his desire to succeed last week he told me about his self talk regarding priorities.

It was interesting to me because as I always do I found a way to make it more positive and put a pin on it to make it less of a ‘feel bad for not doing something’ to more of a ‘peace of mind’ statement. Joe was telling me how if he almost misses a training session because he tells himself he cannot fit it in or for some other reason, he tells himself that he has decided not to prioritise It today. The way that makes him feel is almost as if he has let himself down so he will find time to make it work so that he can fit his training in.

I tried to relate this to some things in my life but I was very careful. Sometimes not prioritising one thing you planned to do in order to do something else is a good thing but other times, you are probably just being lazy. This year I have decided to work on my mobility by stretching more and ensuring that every day my body feels good. I have built it into my routine so I will not go a day without fitting it in. On Friday, I tried to tell myself I did not have enough time to fit it into a 20 minute free slot I had when the routine was only 15 minutes long, I had the time. I told myself that ‘I am not prioritising this today’ but the reason why was simply because I could. not be bothered, to which I started to think about how I am letting myself down, I might be sore tomorrow, I am not doing what is best for my body and in essence, I am being lazy. So I took the time and did the stretching I needed to do!

Now this is small scale. As I go through life there will be bigger means for which I can use this self talk for but I understand the power it has on your mind. Try it! If there is something you need to do, whenever it may be, if you try and tell yourself you cannot for one reason or another, just say to yourself that you are not prioritising that today and see what it does for you. Some days it will make you realise that in actual fact you can do it and some days it will make you realise that it is ok to have prioritised something of more importance today.

The reason this is such a good tool to use is because it does not build into your mind that you do not want to do something, it just gives you the peace of mind that other things need to take priority sometimes and that is perfectly fine. Last night I started typing this blog but decided I wanted to go to bed so I will finish it in the morning. I told myself ‘I am prioritising my need to sleep’ and that is fine because this morning I have woken up, grabbed my coffee and here I am.

YOU’RE PERFECTLY CAPABLE.