As I was out walking the other day, I was thinking about what’s important in my life.
So I came up with a list of priorities.
These aren’t necessarily my ideal priorities, but they are the ones that I am currently
living by.
The first priority is Family.
This involves trying to be a good husband and a good father.
Now this is not necessarily easy.
I do struggle with being a parent at times, but I know that this is probably true of all
parents.
I can only do my best to be there for my wife and children when they need me, take them
to places they enjoy, spend quality time with them, and just try to make our family life
peaceful and enjoyable.
Of course, there are times when I come home from work feeling tired and upset, where I
just don’t feel like playing Lego, or playing shop.
But I think they understand and realise that I do my best to be there for them and to spend
time with them when I can.
My second priority is Health and Fitness.
I realise that without health, I can’t be a good father and a husband.
Of course, sometimes health issues are beyond our control, so we can only do the best we
can with the cards that we have been dealt.
But certainly, getting a little bit of exercise every day, eating healthily, and staying fit,
are all high priorities.
I walk a lot.
I try not to use the car unless I really have to.
I try to avoid buying too many unhealthy snacks, but of course, sometimes I give in to temptation.
Probably the best way to stay healthy in this modern world is to maintain a healthy body
weight.
Recent research has shown that obesity is one of the leading causes of preventable death
in the Western world.
If I want to be there for my family in the future, there’s no use prioritising them
without also prioritising my health.
My third priority is Journaling.
Now that use to involve me just writing on the computer.
I would save all my thoughts and ideas in a single, gigantic word document.
I guess the hope was that one day an archaeologist would come along, discover my laptop, and
extract all this information for future generations to ponder over.
But then I came to my senses and realised that that would probably never happen, so
decided to start posting my thoughts to the Internet instead.
This began with a blog initially, but then eventually turned into this YouTube channel.
I’m pretty confident that YouTube, or something similar to YouTube, will exist as long as
humans are around.
Although I still use the term “journaling”, I guess it has evolved over time and become
“vlogging” instead.
But ultimately, the result is the same.
I’m expressing my ideas and thoughts as words about a range of different topics and
issues and either writing them down, or expressing them verbally.
In the past, I wouldn’t have prioritised it as highly as I do now, but it has certainly
become an important part of my life of late.
I feel that I am gifting my future ancestors a look into the mind of one of their own from
the early 21st century.
My fourth priority is Income.
I am a realist, so I know that to live in this world, we need an income.
If I could push this lower in my list, I would, however, based on the actual hours I dedicate
to obtaining an income, it’s currently fourth on my list.
I currently work, as in, go to a place of employment, three days a week.
Depending on the semester, I also do other academic work that I can do from home – things
like marking, monitoring forums, etc.
Either way, I do enough to get by and try not to let work dominate my life.
As you’ve probably gathered from my other videos, I don’t particularly like work,
but I understand we all need an income in this lovely little capitalist society that
we have created.
And my fifth and final priority is Leisure.
Of course, I’d like this to be higher in my list, but I just don’t have the time.
Once every two weeks, I go over to a friend’s house and play games, or some other leisure
activity.
Before going to bed every night, I usually watch a video or two, typically a comedic
panel show, or some other form of light entertainment.
Although leisure is my last priority, it’s not that I don’t try to include leisure
in the other parts of my life.
As part of my first priority, Family, I do do a lot of leisure-type activities.
But I’m often doing them for my children – not for myself.
I’m happy to do so, but if I didn’t have children, I doubt I would be playing with
building blocks.
So that’s my final list: Family, Health and Fitness, Journaling, Income, and Leisure.
You may have noticed I haven’t explicitly prioritised, “Spending Time with Friends”,
or similar.
That’s true, I haven’t.
Probably from my other videos, you know that I’m not always a big fan of humanity.
I mean, some people can be really ugly – not physically, but you know what I mean.
I find that between family, work colleagues, students, and occasionally meeting up with
my friends, there are plenty of people in my life.
There’s no need to explicitly prioritise “Spending Time with People”.
As I said earlier, this list is not necessarily my ideal order of priorities, but it is how
I am currently living my life.
Hopefully one day, we won’t need to worry about getting an income and can all spend
our time doing the things that we really enjoy and care about.
A life free from toil and wage slavery.
That’s the future society I envision.
Here’s hoping!