Reframe the story you’re telling about your priorities

At the risk of simplifying something as complicated as human motivation, my belief is that the reason people don’t take action is, it’s simply not a priority.

Whatever the item, it’s just one more thing to add to their never ending list.

Bottom line, people don’t do things that are not important to them.

But the challenge with that perfectly acceptable explanation is, it kind of leaves people nowhere to go. Because it’s not like someone’s coworkers, friends or family members can refute their reasoning.

Nobody can make something a priority for someone else.

And so, my question is:

How does a person make something into a priority for themselves? How do they move a task or habit or project to the top of their list, and keep it there?

There are ton of tactical suggestions for this, like decluttering your life, rearranging your schedule, letting go to make space for new projects, and making priority something small that doesn’t feel overwhelming.

All effective moves in the short term. But in my experience, the motivating force that always helped me to rearrange my priorities was much more conceptual, strategic and abstract. That’s how life tends to get through to me, through all that high level stuff.

Whatever isn’t our current priority right now, but needs to be, we have to frame as the number one thing that will resolve all our other issues and therefore, merits immediate investment.

Proof positive that motivation, like most good things, is an inside job. We have to start telling ourselves a newer, stronger, more persuasive story about our priorities.

Even if the narrative is somewhat fictionalized. Even if there’s no proof that prioritizing a certain thing will be the panacea that we are looking for, it’s a hell of a lot better than paralysis.

Remember, if you really wanted it, you would have made it a priority to get it by now. Use that reality as fuel to strengthen the story you tell yourself about what is most important.

Give grandiose weight to the results you might seek, and the tension between where you are and where you want to be will propel you forward.

What extremely valuable activity merits immediate investment?