The Six Circumstances That Affect Our Priorities In Life

Priorities in life don’t just come out of thin air. They are influenced by an whole bunch of elements, circumstances and lifestyle choices, such as your financial situation and your age. For instance, an eighteen year old student with a weekend job is going to have an whole different set of priorities than a thirty year old married person with kids who is area manager in a large company. When it comes to identifying the priorities in life a good place to start is with these six elements discussed below. Where do you fit with each one? How have these circumstances effected the way you think about things? Share your thoughts in the comments!

• Financial situation
  If you don’t have lots of money or you are burdened by debts, trying to increase your earnings is naturally going to be a high priority. In fact if you want to achieve any higher level of living, creating the income to achieve it is going to be of importance. Though of course, when cash is pouring in and you can afford to go on regular holidays and buy a Ferrari, worries about how you’re going to pay your credit card bill or where the next meal is coming from rapidly disappear.
• Family/relationships
  If you’re a single person with no family or partner to consider you’re naturally going to have different priorities to a mother who puts her husband and children first above anything else. If you don’t prioritize them first, you can expect a broken marriage and unhappy children. Of course, a person looking for a relationship is going to want different things than somebody in the tenth year of their marriage.
• Age
  I’m not keen on pigeonholing people into different age brackets, but it’s very apparent that as we get older our priorities shift. An eighteen year old, with the whole of his life ahead of him, is more likely to think short-term and enjoy himself with parties and socializing. However a sixty year old is likely to be thinking about retirement, his health and how he can secure a future for his grandchildren.
• Work and career
  More and more people nowadays are motivated by their career but are you one of them? A part-time job in retail packing shelves may not pay well but if it gives you enough money to enjoy yourself at the weekend then that’s all you need. But if you are in a  high pressure job where you manage entire departments, you’ve going to have entire different motivations. Business success, creating an effective team and developing your selling skills may all be deemed important.
• Health
  Health and fitness is becoming such a big issue now as we become more aware of how our lifestyles affect us and what diseases we can be inflicted by if we choose not to exercise and eat well. Somebody who smokes and drinks everyday is likely to have an whole different perspective on his health than somebody who goes to the gym three times a week and enjoys an healthy salad for lunch.
• Happiness
  Do we sacrifice our own happiness to keep somebody else happy, or do we put our enjoyment before anything else, ignoring others concerns and feelings? A seventy year old grandmother is more likely to consider the happiness of her children and grandchilden by providing financial aid, than keeping it to herself for a rainy day. We all want to be happy but what would you have to do to achieve it?