Adolescence is a stage, a delicate and complex stage. The choices and decisions you make, at this time of your life, will mainly and generally shape your future.
This is the time to put in place the foundations of what it will become one day of your life. This is why it is dangerous to be too carefree and reckless in life as a teenager.
You have grown up and are no longer doing the childish things you used to do and are now a young adult. This means a change in body characteristics, a change in mindset and, of course, a change in priorities.
Setting priorities simply means determining what is most important and what is not.
When you were a child, your priorities were to play, eat lots of chocolate, visit the amusement park and have lots of toys. It’s a whole different thing now, because your priorities naturally change and if those priorities are appropriate, they will certainly serve you well.
Learning to determine what is truly vital, important and optional in our lives can make our lives easier and more efficient and help us build a solid foundation for our adult lives.
How to do it?
I will share with you some tips here:
1- Take time to think.
I believe the first step in learning to prioritize is to take time to stop and think. Teenagers especially need this because they live in a fast-paced world with a million things demanding their attention.
It’s important to get clear on what’s important in our lives and what we want to achieve. Whether it’s financial success, academic excellence, or volunteer work, we need to set clear goals and focus our time and energy on those goals.
2- Take small steps.
While setting goals is a good thing, it is also important to determine the steps to take to achieve them. Remember that success repeats success, so we need to make sure that we take small, measurable and achievable steps.
For example, if you want to make the track team, a small achievable step would be to get up at 5am to run 5 miles, 4 days a week. This will motivate you to keep working on your goal and eventually achieve it.
3- Get a mentor and that’s when I come in as a coach and mentor.
If we know that we are struggling to achieve our goals or get our priorities in order, we can find a good mentor. Mentors can be a fantastic source of motivation and wisdom for young adults, giving them someone to look up to and confide in, especially if they can not get help from their parents. The mentor can be a coach, teacher, counselor, etc.
4- Remember that it is normal to change priorities as we grow up.
Nothing is constant in life, so you can feel free to change your priorities as you grow. This will not only allow you to check your progress and get rid of what no longer serves you, but also ensure that you are still aligning your life with your priorities.
Life can be difficult as a young adult as you struggle to find balance and prioritization will go a long way in helping you lead effectively your life and resutls.
The Center for Youth Leadership 