Priority #1

Priorities: a thing that is regarded as more important.

What are your priorities? What fuels you on a daily basis? What really gets you moving each day?

So here goes. Here are MY priorities.

My number one priority is ME! There, I said it, I admitted it! Your first thought is “she is selfish!” (to put it kindly).

Wait, please! Hear me out!

My reason for putting me at the top of the list: By taking care of what I need, it will make me a better mom, wife, daughter, friend and employee.

I developed my priorities when I became a mom in 2000.

As any new mom can attest, it is a scary, tumultuous, challenging and wonderful time unlike anything that has come before. In the midst of this chaos, I looked deep in me and asked myself: “What will it take each day for me to feel whole, at ease and pleased with who I am?”

I came up with the following: in order to be pleased with my self, I needed to take care of myself.

For me that means eating healthy, drinking a lot of water each day, and getting in a workout each day.

It isn’t easy, and sometimes it means getting up at 5:00 a.m. to run with a headlamp in order to get home in time to greet the kids in the morning and get them to school, or packing a cooler full of healthy foods for trips to out-of-town hockey tournaments.

And you know what, the kids appreciate that I strive each day to stay true to myself. Much to my satisfaction, they have both absorbed the lesson and have each in their own way are going down the path of physical activity and healthy living.

As life continues to stay busy with work, teenagers and aging parents, there are many days when I am NOT the number one priority. That is ok, as long as I do not lose sight of who I am and what I want out of the bigger picture.

What is YOUR number one priority?