Get your priorities right!

 The order of your priorities in life should be in the following order:

1. Your own health

2. Family

3. Work

What most people get wrong is putting their work, job or business at the top of the priority list. This mostly happens because they earn their livelihood through their work. They earn the money required for a convenient and comfortable life through their work. So they equate money to their happiness and make it the most important thing in life.

It is true that money is very important and is a must have to lead a comfortable and safe life. Most of your needs, if not all, are met by money only and lack of it would lead to insecurities and stress in your life.

But this does not mean that it is the most important thing in your life. As I have mentioned in the beginning that the most important thing for you is your own health. If you are healthy only then you can think of acting and working for money and can keep yourself and your family safe and happy. If your health is not in good shape then not only you will spend your hard earned money on your treatment and medicines, you will also remain emotionally and psychologically stretched which would reflect in your behaviour. You would be either grumpy all the time or scared and worried for your and your family's future. If you are not in good shape then you won't be able to keep your family happy as you would be mentally stressed all the time and that stress would not allow you to behave well with others and spread the joy that one should share with his family and relatives. So first and foremost look after your own health so that you remain physically and mentally happy and are in position to take care and help your family.

Your second most important priority has to be your family because no matter what you think, without a happy family and someone to share with, you will be miserable at the end of the day. You can have all the money in the world but if you don't have someone who loves you unconditionally, for who you are and not for your treasures then you can never have that peace of mind and emotional satisfaction which one needs to remain calm and fulfilled. All the material possessions can give you happiness but that happiness is superficial and temporary. Sooner or later you will get used to your possessions and they will lose their charm or thrill and become part of your mundane life. But if you have someone close with whom you can share your thoughts and not be judged, that will give you the real opportunity to relax and unwind. The satisfaction and joy you get when you do something good for your family, parents, spouse or children, cannot be achieved by any gadget or other material possession. The look on the faces of your children when you take them to a park or on a nice dinner is priceless. The moments you share with your parents or spouse where you are just you and nobody else are the ones where your mind is actually free and relaxed. The list of things which you can do for your family is endless but the point to remember is that never ever let your work get ahead of your family. Remember whatever you are doing or earning is ultimately to keep yourself and your family happy.

Finally comes the work. I see a lot of resentment and frustration among the young generation when it comes to work. I think this frustration can be attributed to two things. First today's generation has a lot more choices when it comes to career and profession and second due to a lot of garbage on social media they think that apart from them everybody else is doing great in their career and making a killing while chilling. The social media has engendered this false perception that following your passion is easy and making millions while following your passion is even easier. First of all, most if not all people, do not really know what they really are passionate about. You could be passionate about music toady and tomorrow it could be coding. Our mind tricks us all the time and makes us believe that we really want something, when it is just a casual liking. We see videos on facebook, youtube and instagram and think that so many people are making easy money by just doing what they like. Believe me if it was that easy then they would not be posting useless stuff for others. They would be relaxing on a beach with a beer in hand. These so called influencers are feeding on the basic human flaw of surviving and thriving without much effort. The world does not work that way. You have to work hard to excel in any field. Whether you following your passion or not, in order to succeed you have to put in those hard yards. Just because you like something does not mean that you are good at it and make a living out of it. Mastering any skill requires dedication and persistence. And that is where the current generation is being mislead by the social media where it seems that everything comes easy. You just have to press a few clicks and you are the master of the universe. No. We see successful people on social media and immediately impressed by them. What we are actually seeing is the end result or final product of years of hard work, frustration, stress, struggles and many other hardships which these successful people had to go through to be the persons that we see on the media and are so impressed with. We see their money, their cars, planes, mansions, vacations but what we do not see is the years they spent in despair to make it here.

So my advice is that take inspiration from these people but not for a second think that achieving success is easy as it seems nowadays on the social media. And do not fall for this FOLLOW YOUR PASSION crap. Find something you are good at or something which you think can plug a gap in the market and keep working on it till you are the one who comes first to everybody's mind when they are looking for a solution. Remember to be successful you do not need to find a niche field or do something which nobody has done before. If that were the case then nobody would start a new business because every field is already crowded and has market leaders. To be successful you need to do what everybody else is doing but in a manner which differentiates you, makes you better and unique.