First let me apologize for not getting out a weekly blog for some time now. Like many people, I have a lot going on at any given time, and we all must prioritize the most important things to do. I am no exception to that rule. Let's take my life over the last few months as an example. In September, my doctor decided to make a small change to my medications, which meant that I needed to be hyper-vigilant in monitoring my moods. In the middle of September through the last of October, I was working on a big project at work, which required me to put in 60 - 70 hours of work a week. I had my family relationships to maintain. I had a blog going, and I was working on writing a book on Thriving with Bipolar disorder. Like everyone, I also had a house to maintain with cleaning, paying bills, and grocery shopping to name a few things.

So to prioritize your life or anything for that matter, you need to make a list of all the things going on, just like I did up above. Then you need to decide which ones are critical to sustain if you find yourself in a position like I did where you can not do them all. For me, I had a health situation with the medicine change, that by the way, did not go well. I got slightly depressed after 3 weeks, and then had to change back, and it took 3 more weeks for me to start feeling like myself again. The next important thing was to do the work necessary to keep my job. Working 60 - 70 hours a week can be hard on a "normal" person, but add slight depression on top of that and it takes a bigger toll. As a result, most everything else was on the back burner. I was able to barely stay in touch with friends and family, but those relationships did suffer a bit. I was late on paying one of my bills. I didn't get much cleaning or grocery shopping done either. Then there was the blog and the book I was writing. Unfortunately, I did not have time for either one of those.

Now it is the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's time of the year. I'm glad my emotions are back to normal, my work hours are back down, but now it's time to focus on family and friends during this time of the year. I also want to get my book completed. All that being said, the blog will again take back seat to these other things. I hope to get back to a weekly blog after the first of the year.

I hope you got some helpful tips in how to prioritize your life through my real life example, but let's review the steps. First, make a list of all the things you are involved in that are important to you. Then decide what's necessary to sustain your health and quality of life. For me that was monitoring moods and keeping my job. It might be different for you. However, I found that health tends to take top priority then maintaining your income. Once that's in place, relationships tend to follow those, then maintaining your house (bills, etc.). Most other things need to be prioritized in order that you feel are most important.

So until next time, have a great 2010 holiday season!

I hope you gained some useful insights, and for more information visit me at www.thrivingwithbipolardisorder.com

You can contact me at Cassandra@ThrivingWithBipolarDisorder.com

You can follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/thrivingbipolar

I wish you the best in all your pursuits.

Author: Cassandra L. Good