Prioritization of Goals through Biscuits

by Dec 13, 2018Coaching, Nature, Reflective Practice0 comments

I recently spoke about the importance of prioritizing your goals, since if you do not do it, somebody else will do it for you and likely their goals will be met instead of yours.

While some may think this works for career progress (it does) or for ongoing professional development (again, it does), it can also work like that in our personal lives, too.

Case in point — my two little dogs love treats (hey, so do I, but that is a different story!). Anyway, I give them treats regularly as we are always trying to reinforce their positive behavior, though as a vegetarian, I personally do not want to regularly handle treats that contain meat. So, I buy them little soft peanut butter-based dog treats (you dog lovers know dogs love peanut butter with the same passion that hobbits love the comforts of home, right?), though recently the company that makes them changed their recipe. They are no longer as soft, tasty, or friendly-priced as they once were, 3 strikes against them that led me to searching for a replacement. Not finding one I was happy with, I decided to try something — I tried making them myself.

For people who know me, they know I am not fond of cooking in any of its forms, yet I needed to prioritize finding a new solution that was healthy for my dogs, they would love, and I would feel confident in giving them. Yes, I prioritized my day to bake them these treats (I even cut them into little bones and Christmas trees). I was not looking to be professional, or fancy, or to impress anybody else. Trying to make them something was very important to me, so much so that it became a priority.

Yes, this is what I mean by prioritizing. When something is important to do, then something that is less important needs to be moved off the calendar to make it happen. Not always an easy thing by any stretch of the imagination, but for me feeling good about giving my little guys something they really liked, knowing it does not have preservatives or anything I would not eat, and seeing how happy they were with them was all the prioritization I needed. Prioritization in itself means our actions need to happen in place of something we determine has less value. This does not happen accidentally, but through intentional behavior.

This is how I prioritized these biscuits today, as we spend our time doing what we value.

By the way, did I mention that not only are these vegetarian, but they are also organic, vegan, and absolutely loved by my dogs?

You are worth your own time, aren’t you?

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About Me

Jeffrey M. Keefer, Ph.D., is an educational consultant, institutional researcher and accreditation officer in higher education, professor of research methodology, nonprofit capacity building and strategic planning consultant, talent development coach, spiritual life advisor (chaplain) at New York University, spiritual director, and Wikipedian.

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