what are you known for | David M Masters

As you’re trying to pace yourself through life without succumbing to the rigorous stress associated with the rate race or endless running like a gerbil running on its wheel, that than subject yourself to just being another rodent in the maze of life, it can be helpful to determine what’s important to you.

Having a working knowledge of what’s important to you will help you sort out your priorities. Any time you are faced with a decision to do this or that, a quick scan of your priorities can save you from being distracted by those things in life that do not serve your best interests.

In this way, you get back behind the wheel enabling you to be the master of your fate rather than a victim of this life.

How do you know what’s important to you?

The first and easiest place to look for a detailed list of what’s important to you is to review your bank account. Here you will find how you spend your money, which is often a microcosm of what is important to you in life. It doesn’t take much to extrapolate those things which are meaningful to you after taking a look at how you spend your hard-earned dollars.

MONEY

Are there many extraneous and needless expenditures which indicate you might be taking shopping sprees as therapy? Maybe it is time to reevaluate your spending to be a better representation of what’s important to you.

It may be helpful to find out what kind or money person you are. These are “valuable” monetary clues to who you are, based on how you handle your finances which probably indicates how you deal with life in general.

TIME

If you didn’t feel like it was the next step, well, I’m sure you knew that where you spend your time should be the next item up for review. Time is your most precious treasure because while money feel like it’s more important (especially if you’re feeling like there’s a lack of it), time is far more valuable than money.

With money, you always have another chance, can make another go of it, or try to do better the next time, but with every tick of the clock, you’ve lost time which can never be regained. So, how you spend your time is a clear demonstration of what’s important to you as well.

Again, as you review how you are spending your time, you might feel that it is not an accurate representation of what’s important to you. Maybe you’re wasting your valuable time on things that have little substance or do not add significance or value to your life, like you’d like to. Now’s a good time to think about scheduling time in your life for the things that bring you joy or a sense of purpose to your life.

As you get to better know yourself, it’s easy to see that time and money both indicate these things which you give your attention to. These are the priorities in your life.

ATTENTION

Where do your thoughts go, when there is time to let your mind wander? More attention… are your idle thoughts serving you in a way that is honorable and meaningful?

Maybe there are opportunities that are passing you by.

What if you had only one week to live? How would you spend those last few days of your life? Wouldn’t this to do list represent things that are important to you? Maybe you should start making these things priorities in your life.

You don’t care?

As important as getting to grips with what’s important to you is also taking a look at those things which have little or no importance to you. What are the things that you do not give your attention, time, or money to?

You might be shocked or surprised to realize that the areas you neglect the most are those that have little meaning for you. Maybe they once did, but they have lost their luster, and are no longer important to you.

Maybe following this review, you will notice things which aren’t important to you, should be. If your attention, time, and money are not being spent on things you think might be important, like family, marriage, and other relationships, now might be the time to make some adjustments in your priorities of life now.

What do you think your priorities should be?

How do people see you, and how might you like them to see you? Are they similar?

I’m not saying that you should let others dictate the kind of person you should be, but I am saying that they should be able to see the kind of person you would like to be known as. This represents your authenticity, people being able to recognize you for who you are. Who are you known as?

Maybe it’s time to make some noticeable changes that will be noticed by friends, acquaintances, and passers-by which depict the real you who is experiencing this life through your body.

This leads to what may even be more significant: How will you be remembered?

When your valuable time is up, and your journey has come to an end, what will you have left behind? You are more than just your will. There are other wills, such as, will you have made a contribution? Will people remember you as the person you are? Will you leave a legacy? Will you have made the world a better place in your own special way?

While there is still breath in your lungs and your heart beats with the energy of unconditional love and life, think about those things that bring you a sense of purpose, meaning, and joy. Focus your attention, time, and money on these things and make your life an accurate representation of who you really are.

You owe yourself the honor of seeing that you are represented in the world in a way that is in accordance with how you would like to be known and/or remembered. So, who are you known as?

You know who you are. You know how you think, what’s important to you, what makes your heart sing, etc.… but are you presenting yourself in such a way, so others can see you for who you are?

More often than not, we are oblivious to how others perceive the public image we project of ourselves.

Nowadays, we have these huge social media billboards posted all over the Internet. You may think of yourself as being a certain kind of person, but what do you look like on the World Wide Web?

In a worst-case scenario, since nearly no one knows it will come, how would you be seen by those who looked you up online after hearing that you had died in an accident today? Chances are, no one has your password, so your social media life would be frozen in time at the sound of your flatline.

Beeeeeeeeep.

Looking at some random people’s social media, you could safely assume that this person would be known as someone who hates the President. This person believes in aliens. Here’s an avid conspiracy theorist. This person falls in love with a different person every month and vacillates between hating and loving prospective lovers.

Here’s a sarcastic critic of just about everyone and everything. Here’s somebody who relentlessly posts shameless selfies. This guy never wears a shirt and has pineapple-hair. This person is clearly always in a drunken stupor, and here’s the world’s biggest fan of marijuana.

I had a friend who was clearly identified as a thrill seeker, so it was no surprise when he was involved in a fatal accident. In his case, his social media was an accurate representation of his tendency to tempt fate. But there was so much more to him that those of us who knew him well saw in him which was not represented on the Internet.

If your ability to post on social media was curtailed by your ability to live, how would you be remembered? It might be worth taking a look at. Maybe it’s time to post something congruent with how you might like to be remembered?

And that’s just your virtual personality. What about in real life?

In real life, at school, work, hanging with friends, we often represent ourselves in one way, when the identity of our authentic self is quite different. We might hide our sensitive side, or present ourselves as bolder, to either prevent ourselves from being vulnerable or to advance our position among peers or coworkers.

You are far more than people might think who you are or what you do.

Chances are, even your family members may not know your best attributes. What you believe,

Maybe it’s time to take a look at how you are perceived in the community. Ask friends and coworkers whom you can trust how they see you. Do they see you the way you want to be seen?

Who are you? Today might be a good take to take a look at your personal brand.