What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life?

12/12/20, 11:54 AM

What Are The Top 7 Priorities To

Have In Life?
Leon HoFounder & CEO of Lifehack Read full profile

Last Updated on December 11, 2020

13 Keys to Living Your Best Life

Twenty years ago, my husband and I had an experience I will never forget.
While on our way to Nairobi, Kenya, a mentally-ill passenger broke into the
cockpit and tried to crash the plane.

For five harrowing minutes, the plane did acrobatics in the air.

In those moments of life hanging on a thread, what living the best life
really means for me suddenly became crystal clear.

But I’ll get to that in a minute. Because this article isn’t about me. It’s
about you and your life.

Do you have a strong sense of what you want out of life, but find it
challenging to achieve that in the face of your day-to-day responsibilities
and stresses?

If so, you are not alone.

Recent research has revealed 13 keys that can help us strike this balance
between the big picture of what we want out of life and navigating
everyday distractions.

But first, it’s important to figure out what living the best life means to you.

Table of Contents

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 1 of 12
What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life? 12/12/20, 11:54 AM

1. What Brings You a Sense of Meaning?

2. 3 Questions to Ask About Living the Best Life
3. What’s Distracting You from Living the Best Life?
4. 13 Keys to Living the Best Life
5. Final Thoughts
6. More on Living the Best Life

What Brings You a Sense of Meaning?

When you think of living the best life, what do you think of?

Perhaps achieving happiness, reaching your potential, or making the

world a better place?

What are the inner standards by which you judge your life?

The following three questions might help.

3 Questions to Ask About Living the Best Life

For me, in the moments we faced death during that harrowing experience
on the plane, I became intensely aware of these three questions by which I
was judging how my life had been up to that point.

How Am I Experiencing Love?

The love I felt in that moment for my husband, our loved ones who were
on the ground, and all others in the world was truly profound. I became
aware that love—both my ability to receive it and share it—matters more
than anything else.

How Authentically Am I Sharing My Unique Gift?

We each have a unique gift—the unique energy and essence that is who
we really are. Each person has a unique gift to offer that no one else can

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 2 of 12
What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life? 12/12/20, 11:54 AM

or ever will again.

Living our best life means finding creative ways to share our best selves,
whether in our work, our creative hobbies, or simply how we live.

What Am I Grateful For?

It’s easy to focus on our worries and anxieties or the distractions of

everyday life. However, when we remember our own mortality, we realize
that each moment is a gift.

What matters most in the big picture perspective of our lives is very
personal. However, figuring it out is how we uncover our formula for living
our best lives.

What’s Distracting You from Living the Best Life?

Fast forward to 20 Years Later.

Today, my morning starts before the sun came up. Emails, texts, and
appointments called for my attention, including requests from my family,
friends, coworkers, as well as news alerts about the latest global crisis. To
say nothing of our puppy, who was asking to be taken out for her morning
walk.

A dilemma most of us struggle with is time. How do we manage our time

so that our lives reflect what matters most?

These 13 keys can help us focus, live with greater purpose, boost our
happiness and well-being, and authentically connect with the unique gift
we each have to share, even in the face of day-to-day distractions.

13 Keys to Living the Best Life

1. Identify What Matters Most to You

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 3 of 12
What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life? 12/12/20, 11:54 AM

It doesn’t take a near-death experience to reconnect with what matters

most. Sometimes, just a few moments of asking tough questions can help
us to do the same thing.

What matters most to you? What is most important to you—really? If you

learned you only had a limited time left, what would you want to do with
your time?

Have you had a difficult experience that helped you clarify what really
matters? What did you learn? What are your answers to the above three
questions?

What matters most to you?

2. Practice Being Present

Research has revealed that a simple way to be happier and live our best
life comes from developing the ability to fully experience each moment.
Mindfulness is the ability to observe the present moment without judging
it.

Mindfulness has many impressive benefits. Diabetic patients who were

taught mindfulness skills experienced lower blood sugar and increased
happiness.[1]

Mindfulness on the job has been proven to reduce exhaustion and

increase job satisfaction.[2]

Mindfulness is not difficult to learn and is something we can do in a

moment.

Right now, take a deep breath. Notice how the breath feels as it is going
into your lungs.

How does your body feel? Are your muscles stiff or relaxed? Do you feel

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 4 of 12
What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life? 12/12/20, 11:54 AM

warm or cold? What do you see? What do you smell? What do you hear?

Focus on the noises closest to you, then further away. Now try to hear
even beyond that. This is all it takes to be fully present.

⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄

Are You Living Life to the Fullest Yet?

Take our Full Life Assessment for FREE and find out what's holding
you back from living the fullest life

Take Assessment

⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄

3. Savor the Moment

An incredibly powerful technique that I’ve been coaching my clients to do

and have been doing in my own life for several decades is something I call
Creating a Miraculous Moment. This is very effective when it comes to
living our best lives.

Here’s how you can create a Miraculous Moment, right now.

First, become present by looking around and noticing what is happening

(ask yourself the questions above in Key #2).

Then find something very specific that you are grateful for—perhaps the
way the sun feels on your face, feeling safe, hearing beautiful music
playing in the background, etc.

Combining mindfulness with savoring the moment is powerful, and the

benefits are backed by research. Doing these things together can improve
your psychological health and life satisfaction.[3]

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 5 of 12
What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life? 12/12/20, 11:54 AM

4. Listen and Have Empathy

Living the best life has a lot to do with the level of trust, empathy, and
intimacy we have in our relationships with those we love.[4]

In his book, Nonviolent Communication, Marshall B. Rosenburg, Ph.D.,

explains that learning to listen to others with empathy and presence can
dramatically transform our relationships.

Being a good listener helps people feel as if we really care about them. It
also helps us to understand what they need and want, so we can be of
service and come up with positive solutions. His methods are rooted in
the idea that “observing without evaluating is the highest form of human
intelligence.”

5. Learn to Flow

One of the most powerful ways to connect with our true selves and
experience positive emotions is through flow.

Flow is sort of like mindfulness in action. Flow is when we are so

engrossed in what we are doing that we get into a zone and stop thinking
about anything else. We can experience this when playing an instrument,
playing a sport, creating artwork, writing an essay, reading a book, etc.

Being in flow increases our happiness, helps us reach optimal

performance, and boosts our creativity. According to researcher Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi and author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal
Experience, one of the best things about flow is it puts happiness in our
control.[5] Rather than being happy because of outer events, we are in
flow as a result of an inner experience we create for ourselves.

6. Hit the Reset Button (Often)

Sometimes life sends us curveballs we aren’t prepared for. It’s important

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 6 of 12
What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life? 12/12/20, 11:54 AM

to know how to get back to the center—to who we are and to reconnect
with our goals and priorities. If you ever find yourself feeling off-course or
negative, imagine hitting a pause button.

It only takes a minute to re-focus. Some great tips for resetting include
stretching, taking a deep breath, jotting down a few goals or intentions,
then beginning again.

Knowing how to reset our energy is important when it comes to navigating

minor distractions and major life changes.

7. Be Self-Aware

There is a saying that awareness is the first step to healing. Sometimes we

are so busy in life that we don’t take time out to hear our inner voice,
which can have negative consequences.

We can also become blind to destructive habits that we want to pretend

aren’t happening but can have negative long-term effects on our well-
being.

When we prioritize getting to know ourselves, we gain information that

can be extremely helpful in changing our lives for the better. If self-
awareness is something you want to improve, consider working with a
therapist, coach, journaling, meditating, or regularly sharing from a deep
place of honesty with a friend who wants the very best for you.

8. Comfort Yourself

Self-awareness is one thing. What we do with that awareness, however, is

even more important.

Many of us have learned to be very hard on ourselves and self-critical in

the face of challenges or aspects of self we would like to change.
However, research shows self-criticism can have a very negative impact

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 7 of 12
What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life? 12/12/20, 11:54 AM

on our health, well-being, and the quality of our lives.[6]

The good news is, self-compassion and the ability to reassure ourselves
can be learned and can lower our risk of depression, anxiety, shame, and
stress. Next time you find yourself being overly self-critical, try reassuring
yourself, visualizing comforting and calming images, or imagining being
comforted by a deep understanding, accepting and empathetic friend.

9. Do What You Love

The benefits of hobbies and doing what we love have been widely
accepted, including improving our well-being and reducing stress.[7]
When we enjoy something, we are more apt to do it often.

The more often we practice something, the better we become, and that
can also act to boost our sense of well-being, confidence, and success.

⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄

Get That Goal You've Always Wanted

Grab a FREE Lifehack Guide to start getting what you want!

Reach My Goal!

⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄

Activities we love are also those that can help us experience flow (Key
#5), which improves our happiness and can provide a direct experience of
who we really are, our unique gift, and our true self.

Shortly after our near-death experience on that flight to Africa, my

husband and I took a three-month sabbatical and traveled around the
United States, interviewing more than 100 people about their hopes and
dreams, including what they’d always dreamed of doing. The joy on

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 8 of 12
What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life? 12/12/20, 11:54 AM

people’s faces as they shared their answers showed us that even the act
of thinking about what we love to do can be a game-changer.

Take a minute now to ask yourself:

What are your passions? What do you love to do?

Your answers are the key to living your best life.

10. Develop Routines and Positive Habits

One of the reasons the small stuff gets in the way of our big picture goals
and intentions is that we haven’t established routines and positive habits.

Routines can help us cut through the clutter, reduce distractions and more
easily accomplish all the little things that we all must do to survive, such
as pay our bills, make our meals, wash and put away our clothes and
dishes and yes, empty our email inboxes.

Research shows that the better we are at creating routines to take care of
our personal lives and healthcare, the better our health and well-being.[8]

One tip for creating a new habit, which Charles Duhigg discusses in his
book The Power of Habit, is building habits on top of each other. In other
words, if you already brush your teeth every night without fail, add a new
habit to that already-established time and routine.

11. Commit to Your Connections

The COVID-19 pandemic showed us firsthand how important our social

connections are. Community is an important factor in how happy we are
with our lives, and our long-term well-being and health.

If you feel disconnected or like you want to strengthen your sense of

belonging, consider calling a different friend each day, joining a church,
synagogue or spiritual group, online or in-person support group, book

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 9 of 12
What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life? 12/12/20, 11:54 AM

club, or exploring cultural or community events that might be attended by

other people with shared interests.

To reconnect with favorite friends, try scheduling a weekly hike, coffee

hour, zoom call, happy hour, or email/text check-in.

We get what we put out there. Show up when people you love ask for help
or seek connection. Let go and create healthy boundaries with people
who drain your energy.

12. Move Your Body

Exercise is an important key to staying healthy and happy. Research

shows exercise can prevent depression, long-term illness, improve our
moods, and increase our longevity.[9]

We now know that it’s not only exercise that matters, but also how we hold
and move our bodies when we are going through the motion of our lives,
including working at our desks. Recent research shows that simply sitting
up straight can make us more likely to think positive thoughts about
ourselves and what is possible for our lives.[10]

13. Spend Time in Nature

One of the best ways to live our best lives is to spend time in nature. From
the benefits of vitamin D from sunlight, to simply getting outside of our
own world and connecting with something greater, the benefits of nature
are well-established.[11]

The more we learn, the more we realize how important it is to protect our
natural spaces, parks, and trees, not just for our enjoyment, but also for
our physical and mental well-being.

Final Thoughts

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 10 of 12
What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life? 12/12/20, 11:54 AM

Living the best life requires knowing matters most to us and reflecting this
in what we prioritize in our day-to-day. The good news is, with intention
and focus, small changes can make a big difference.

Look at the list of 13 keys above one more time. Which of the 13 keys for
living your best life resonates most with you? Which do you think has the
greatest potential to change your life for the better?

Lately, I have found #6: Hit The Reset Button to be particularly helpful.

When we feel distracted or off-course, all we have to do is remember that

each moment is a gift.

No matter how far the anxieties or distractions of our lives have taken us
from where we want to be, it only takes a moment to reset, shift from
distraction to gratitude, remember what matters most and begin again.

More on Living the Best Life

How to Live Your Best Life Starting Today
How Self Care Can Help You Live Your Best Life
10 Ways to Be Happier, Backed By Science

Feeling Lost and Out of Control?

If you aren't taking any action to turn your life now, chances are you will
live the same routine for the rest of your time.

Maybe life is uncertain for you now but you're capable to take back
control of your life.

Grab this FREE guide and find out what you can do to get back on track
and be the master of your own life.

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 11 of 12
What Are The Top 7 Priorities To Have In Life? 12/12/20, 11:54 AM

Featured photo credit: Court Cook via unsplash.com

Reference

https://www.lifehack.org/876081/list-of-priorities Page 12 of 12