Key Messages
How To Live A Happy And Meaningful Life According To First Things First
We all want to live happier, more meaningful lives.
But with our modern, stressful lifestyles, it can be hard to know where to start.
Luckily, there is First Things First by Roger Merrill, Rebecca Merrill and Stephen Covey – a self-help master – which provides the answers.
This book shares key ideas that help maximize quality of life and focus on what matters most.
Some of these principles are simple and easy to adopt into your daily routine and they provide a great starting point for anyone looking to make positive changes in their lives.
By following the principles outlined in this book, you can learn how to prioritize things that are important to you and organize your life in a way that will bring greater joy and satisfaction.
You’ll learn how to focus on what’s really important while still achieving other goals you’d like to accomplish.
In short, First Things First will help you live a more fulfilling life that brings happiness and meaning!
Living Life Meaningfully Means Prioritizing The Things That Make Us Truly Happy
Living a meaningful life isn’t about doing things as quickly as possible – it’s about doing “first things” first.
Most self-help books encourage us to make lists and cross off tasks as we accomplish them; however, this approach only focuses on one side of the coin – which is our commitments, objectives and itineraries, which we can call the “clock of our lives.” It fails to take into account the much more important side: our values, principles, and conscience – otherwise known as the “compass of our lives.”
With the compass in mind, meaningful living is all about prioritizing those “first things” that have long-term positive impacts on our happiness.
This could include spending time with family or making sure you do what you love professionally on a daily basis.
In other words, it’s not just about crossing items off a list; it’s about taking action based off what matters most to you.
On the other hand, focusing purely on your job without taking into account other aspects of your life can leave you feeling regretful later on.
When it comes to living your best life, think twice before accepting any offers from fairies that promise to make your work faster; instead, question what really matters in life and prioritize those “first things”.
Don’T Let Urgency Get In The Way Of What’S Truly Important
Often times, we get caught up in trying to do what’s urgent and important in our daily lives, such as going to work or visiting family.
But the trouble with this is that urgent tasks and important tasks aren’t always the same thing.
That’s why it’s so important to focus on what’s truly important instead of just focusing on what’s urgent.
Western societies have made urgency a status symbol, making us think that people who are busy must be quite important.
And unfortunately, the physiological effects of being busy can also make us want to prioritize the urgent over the important things in life.
If we don’t take care to focus on the things that are really meaningful and fulfilling, such as spending time with family, then we might end up disappointed later on when all we have left is a sense of urgency and stress because we neglected what really mattered.
Sure, sometimes you may not be able to choose between the two, but whenever possible it’s essential to put your efforts into what’s truly worthwhile in life instead of just chasing after deadlines and tasks.
Focus On Your Principles To Increase The Quality Of Your Life
Achieving a life of high quality does not come easily, but there are steps one can take to achieve it.
Firstly, you must identify and meet your four basic human needs: physical (i.e.
food, shelter & good health), mental (i.e.
intellectual stimulation), social (i.e.
relationships with people you trust and care for) and spiritual (i.e.
a sense of purpose).
If these needs are not met, stress, anxiety or fear can arise which lead to an overall decrease in quality of life.
In addition to meeting your needs, it’s also important to focus on your principles – these act as our personal compass and guide us in the direction we want to go in life.
It’s essential that we stick to them consistently instead of adhering only sometimes – this way, we’ll be able to achieve our desired results eventually even if immediate success is not achieved.
Therefore, having a high quality of life depends on meeting your needs and focusing on your principles – something that many successful people have achieved with time and dedication!
Having A Clear Vision For The Future Will Help You Make Better Decisions And Improve Your Quality Of Life
Having a clear and compelling vision for the future helps you make decisions that are in line with your higher goals and maximize your quality of life.
The strength of our desire to achieve our dreams is often greater than the fear or doubt we may have, so having a well-defined vision will help us ignore the negativity and focus on what we can do right now to get closer to our long-term goals.
Take Gandhi, for example: his life was guided by his relentless pursuit of an egalitarian society.
His social anxiety wasn’t enough to keep him from reaching his goal because he believed in it completely and dedicated himself entirely to it.
Victor Frankl – another famous Holocaust survivor – found that among all those he knew, it was their sense of purpose for the future that kept them alive during times of suffering.
Their visions gave them endurance despite everything else.
The best way for us to create a strong vision for our own futures is by writing down a personal mission statement.
Reflect on what you want your eightieth birthday look like – be it having successful business or big family, whatever floats your boat- and start taking steps towards achieving them today, instead of wasting time on small matters that won’t matter years from now when you look back on how far you’ve come!
The Key To Achieving Goals: Identifying The What, Why, And How And Staying Driven By Importance Over Urgency
It’s easy to set goals, but it’s much more difficult to actually reach them.
That’s why it’s important to make sure that all of your goals are based on your values and a vision for the future.
Otherwise, you’re likely just setting yourself up for disappointment.
For instance, if your goal is to improve health and wellbeing, then it’s important that this aligns with your principles and why you want to do it.
Ask yourself: do I want to maintain a healthy body because I want to set an example for my children, or because someone else wants me too?
If the answer is something other than getting healthier in order to feel better, there might be something off-base with your principles and why you are doing it.
It also helps if you can identify something that’s within your own influence when setting a goal.
We all have certain things in life that we don’t have control over – i.e.
the president’s foreign policy – but many of us can still focus our efforts on things that are within our own influence, such as maintaining healthy eating habits or exercising regularly (or both!).
Finding The Right Perspective And Sticking To Your Principles Are Key To Making Good Decisions
When it comes to making the right decisions, a good perspective is key.
Just like how photographers get the right perspective for their pictures by using various lenses, you need to use the right perspectives when making your important choices.
Most people use just one narrow view in decision-making; either taking an immediate view such as deciding what to eat or a wide-engined view in planning what they want five years from now.
But often a better solution is to combine both perspectives and plan out your week ahead of time, designating set times for each activity that matters to you— work, family or leisure.
You can also maximize your time by merging multiple tasks into one another i.e.
trying out a new recipe for dinner that can double up as something you give to neighbors and take with you to receptions.
Lastly, this process isn’t merely about finding the right perspective but also acting with integrity; prioritizing things that are important even if it means missing out on something else – like being reliable and helping out a friend instead of staying home and reading – which is having “integrity in the moment of choice”
The Benefits Of Valuing Interdependence And Cooperation Over Independence And Competition
Rather than trying to always compete and get ahead on our own, it’s much more beneficial to focus on interdependence and cooperation.
This can lead to healthier relationships in both the long-term and immediate future.
Take our four basic human needs – living, loving, learning and leaving a legacy – for example.
All of these generally involve having relationships with others, which means that we are constantly interdependent and need one another as much as they need us!
Rather than viewing this as competition to be “the best” or have “the most”, we should acknowledge this interdependence for what it is: a good thing!
Plus, if we focus on cooperation instead of independence and competition, it’s much easier to create win-win situations.
Take two people working through their marriage: many couples would simply call it quits when the honeymoon phase was over.
But by focusing on cooperation rather than competing for attention or love, couples might find that solving problems together strengthens their marriage even further!
How To Be A Good Personal Leader: Create An Environment Of Trust, Respect, And Honesty To Empower Others
If you want to be a strong personal leader in any area of your life, the key is to strive to empower those around you.
You can’t directly instill empowerment on someone, but you can create conditions that allow it to naturally occur by establishing trust, respect and honesty with them.
For example, if one of your colleagues comes to you with a problem at work, don’t try to fix it for them straight away – instead, ask them what they would do and encourage them to find the solution themselves.
This demonstrates that their creativity is valued, and gives them a sense of respect and worthiness.
They will likely feel empowered as a result!
Similarly, fostering “high-trust-culture” in the workplace by listening to employee’s feedback and showing humility can demonstrate that their opinion is valued and respected.
It also reinforces accountability, which will ultimately lead to stronger performance on both an individual and organizational level.
So start empowering those around you today: treat every interaction with others in a way that indicates mutual trust and respect, involve others in decision making processes when possible, listen proactively and offer regular feedback when necessary.
By doing this you’ll no doubt become an effective leader while fostering healthier relationships at the same time!
The Power Of Balance: Understanding The Connectivity Of Life To Achieve More Meaningful Results
It’s essential that we view our lives as one whole, not as separate parts.
This will help us gain a more productive perspective of life and create a sense of balance.
Too often, people put their roles and tasks into independent compartments, like work, family, hobbies, etc.
However, this approach can be limiting and prevent you from transferring your skills between roles.
Studies have shown that someone who’s successful in one task may struggle to perform it in another compartment if they’ve never thought across the boundaries they’ve imagined.
The key is to combine your roles in life and understand the connectivity between them instead of thinking of them as Separate pieces.
For example, if an executive only focuses on timetables and duties they won’t be happy with interruptions but giving away some time to address employees who need help and build stronger relationships can enhance their job performance too.
You don’t have to think of ways to fit every part you have in your life because it all comes together naturally when you link everything together in one big picture.
When feeling overwhelmed by two different tasks or roles simply combine them such as playing tennis with your children instead spending time alone exercising separately from each other; those little activities can make big differences that benefit everyone involved without the need for any extra effort!
The Key To Inner Peace Is Putting The Important Things First
Having inner peace is an essential part of having a high quality of life.
Unfortunately, discouragement, pride and unrealistic expectations can prevent us from developing that peace.
Fortunately, we can take steps to improve our lives and gain inner peace.
Striving to put “first things first” is key.
A great metaphor for understanding this is the professor who filled a jar with rocks, gravel, sand and water.
The rocks representing important things while the gravel, sand and water stood for everything else.
By focusing on what’s truly important in life, like your loved ones or hobbies you enjoy, everything else will naturally fall into place.
You’ll no longer feel the need to compete with others to prove your worth – instead humility and courage will lead you towards achieving inner peace and satisfaction with your life.
All of these things taken together are essential for improving our quality of life.
If you make an effort to prioritize what really matters to you first each day by using this metaphor from the professor as inspiration – you can have inner peace in no time!
Wrap Up
The final summary of First Things First is that priorities matter.
Our lives can become chaotic and disorganized when we don’t take the time to identify our core values, goals, and the highest priority tasks first.
When you focus on the “first things” – rather than just the urgent or smaller tasks – it allows for greater happiness and inner peace.
Having a future-oriented vision is key as this will help prioritize your goals and determine which tasks must be done first in order to achieve that ultimate goal.
When you focus on what truly matters, instead of just getting lost in urgency or busy work, it can lead to greater success and an improved quality of life overall.
