Category: Priorities

I don’t know about you, but I like my water carrying buckets hole-free. And while you might agree, you might be surprised at how many holes are in your money-carrying buckets that you’re either consciously ignoring or blind to see.

Things like delivery fees for food you could’ve gotten for a fraction of the cost at the store or picked up yourself… credit card charges for goods and services you should’ve paid off right away or could’ve done without… subscription services for entertainment apps you haven’t used in months… high utility bills because you’re careless and use way more than what you really need… insurance on your house or car that’s jacked up in price because you haven’t shopped around or have been too lazy to participate in rate reduction programs or courses…

See what most people don’t understand… or maybe just want to be too bougie to have to worry about… is that patching leaks is an excellent strategy for keeping more water in your bucket. And while, yes, putting more water in your bucket can also result in you having more water in your bucket… it can also lead to bigger and more exacerbated leaks. Especially if you never pay any mind to them and let them deteriorate, rust, and crack unchecked and freely.

The mindset is this: take care of your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.

Remember that when it’s inconvenient to do something… it may be in that exact situation that you prove another thing’s (or person’s) priority.

…Is it inconvenient to go out of your way to do an errand for someone else? Does it also prove that person’s priority?

…Is it inconvenient to cook a full meal vs microwave something frozen? Does it also prove your health’s priority?

…Is it inconvenient to wake up early before your dependents so you can have some “You Time”? Does it also prove how you prioritize self-care?

We are wired to take the path of least resistance. But sometimes, the long-term path that results in the least overall resistance is the higher resistance path now.

My frustration from yesterday’s post wasn’t with the college student who quit.

What was disheartening was the fact that she felt she couldn’t devote 1.7% of her waking hours to something as life-changing, useful, and important as exercise.

…My frustration was with Med School.

My frustration was/is that there isn’t more of an emphasis on mental health and exercise from the department heads/teachers/colleges themselves.

…How can they train people to be doctors when they’re literally training people to build such unhealthy and debilitating habits? …I can only imagine how much caffeine, crappy food, and unmentionable things med students feel like they need to consume just to keep up with the workload.

And then after 4-8 years of consuming ungodly amounts of said items, not exercising, disregarding their mental health… they’re supposed to what? …All of a sudden start exercising, eating healthy, and prioritizing their inner world?

…Because being busy is going to all of a sudden stop?

…Yeah, right.

There should never be a time when you’re too busy to eat right, exercise, and prioritize your mental health. Except maybe for extenuating circumstances when you have to care for / prioritize dependents.

But, even so… we can only give to others what we have. We can only build in those around us what we’ve built in ourselves. And if what we’re building in our doctors—the people who are literally supposed to be the epitome of health and wellness—is a disregard for healthy eating and exercise when busy and dependency on caffeine and other drugs to get by…

…What are they going to (continue to) build into us?

I had a disheartening conversation with a martial arts student yesterday.

She asked if we could cancel her membership because Med School was becoming too much for her to handle.

The classwork and labs and studying had become so much that she couldn’t devote the two hours per week required for training.

I spoke to her about the benefits formal exercise can have in the studying/learning process—of which there are numerous!

I spoke to her about time management and we talked about how two hours per week is only 1-2% of her available weekly waking hours (24 hours per day – 8 hours for sleep = 16 waking hours per day; 16 waking hours x 7 days per week = 112 hours; 2 hours of exercise / 112 hours = .017 or 1.7%)

I even spoke to her about the importance of leading by example and keeping exercise as a priority even when she was busy so that when she was a medical professional telling busy people to prioritize exercise—she had a foundation of experience she could reference.

And she politely smiled and nodded throughout, listening carefully to each of my points.

And then said she agreed and thanked me for what I said, but that she still needed to cancel because it just wasn’t possible with Med School.

And that was that.

A change in my life caused me to stop reading before bed.

And before bed was my time to read… established into my lifestyle for years.

But, I simply couldn’t do it with this new life change…

So I’m training myself to become an afternoon reader.

I’m cutting as much afternoon social media time as I can—at mostly zero as of late—and am replacing it with 20-40 minutes of reading time. Outdoors, too, when it’s nice enough outside.

It has taken me a couple of months to get to this point, but I can feel it starting to take hold.

Today’s reminder is to be diligent about making time and space for the things that are important to you in your life.

Life will always challenge you with distractions and by shuffling up priorities.

It’s up to you to keep everything straight in your mind and matched appropriately with the amount of energy and effort you put in.