11 Steps to Making Yourself a Priority

It's not always the easiest thing to make yourself a priority, but it's necessary if you want to maintain your overall health and wellbeing. It's a remarkable quality to be selfless and generous, but you'll end up being burned out if you don't prioritize yourself.

Unlike the contrary, it's not selfish to put yourself first, but it's necessary if you want to maintain your sanity and health. Self-care is never selfish and you shouldn't feel guilty about prioritizing yourself. In this article, we'll be talking about everything you need to know about prioritizing yourself.

Why You Need To Make Yourself a Priority

Making yourself a priority is so important because if you always put others above your own needs, you'll burn yourself out and you won't be able to do anything else. It's not selfish or wrong to make yourself a priority, but it's a necessity.

You need to prioritize yourself if you want to appreciate or love yourself more, or to show that you're just as worthy of receiving love like other people.

Prioritizing yourself also means that you provide the perfect balance in your life that allows you to give as much to yourself as you do to other people. This means you won't feel neglected or taken advantage of, especially when you're in a position where you're always accommodating the needs of others while ignoring your own.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with being selfless or compassionate, but there's should be a proper balance.

11 Steps To Making Yourself a Priority



1. Make time for yourself

It's easy to come up with excuses for having time for ourselves and claim that we just don't have the time. However, that's not always true but it's just a manner of priorities. You need to set adequate time for yourself if you want to practice prioritizing yourself.

You will always have other opportunities with others, but it's not all the time you can spend time with yourself.

2. Practice self-compassion

It's not always the easiest thing in the world to talk kindly to ourselves, especially when we need it the most. However, kindness and compassion are two things you need to prioritize yourself better. If you wouldn't say something harsh to a friend, then you shouldn't do the same to yourself.

3. Stop feeling guilty

You get so used to prioritizing others that when it's time to do the same for yourself, guilt is the normal reaction. There's nothing to be ashamed of when prioritizing yourself. Change your mindset and embrace it instead.

4. Practice saying no

If you're someone selfless, then saying no is very challenging to you because you want to be there for everyone. However, it's important to pay attention to your own needs before others. By neglecting your own needs, you're missing out on so much joy and happiness in your own life.

5. Love your imperfections

This might sound cliche, but it's really necessary to love everything you are, including your flaws and imperfections. You can only prioritize yourself when you accept that you're worth loving, despite your shortcomings and weaknesses.

6. Don't hesitate to ask for help

This is one of the challenging things to do, but it's also the one aspect that's such a life-changer to make yourself a priority. By asking for help, you're letting someone help you carry the burden off your shoulders so you have more time for yourself.

7. Let go of the need for control

It's so frustrating to have the need to control every aspect of your life but no matter how hard you try, you can't get everything you want. There will always be things beyond your control, and that's okay. You can prioritize yourself better when you realize you don't need to have control all the time.

8. Embrace your emotions

You can prioritize yourself by just listening to your emotions and learning to follow your needs. Stop being harsh on yourself for being vulnerable because you're human, and that's okay. Let yourself be sad, anxious, stressed, depressed on your worst days and give yourself what you need in that given moment.

9. Surround yourself with encouragement

You can't prioritize yourself when you're surrounded by the wrong group of people so you must surround yourself with people who motivate and encourage you that it's okay to put yourself first. Be with people who don't drain you, but fill you up with light and energy.

10. Start a gratitude journal

It's easy to dwell on everything wrong with the world and a gratitude journal can help shift your mindset and appreciate yourself more. You can also choose a gratitude journal focused on yourself as it helps you realize everything you're grateful for about yourself. It gives you the realization that you have a lot of great aspects more than you realize.

11. Believe you're more than enough

At the end of the day, you are and have always been more than enough - you just need to accept that yourself and own it. No matter what, you're not your mistakes or bad decisions, but you're capable of doing so much.

Prioritizing Yourself Daily

Prioritizing yourself is more than just saying all the right words and pampering yourself, but it's knowing what you need and deserve every day. This means saying no when someone is disrespecting your boundaries or when you're getting close to being burned out.

It's taking short breaks when you're feeling drained and it's taking the time to reflect inward. Prioritizing yourself is knowing who you are and being content with spending time with yourself because it's how you recharge your energy.

Final Thoughts

I hope this article was able to shed insight into everything you needed to know on 11 steps to making yourself a priority. Even if it's not easy to prioritize yourself, the best thing you can do is to make simple changes and start being intentional about putting yourself first.

No matter how much you feel like it, you're never a bad person for putting yourself first because you deserve to feel like a priority.