There is a difference between knowing something and doing it. Over the course of life, we learn and come to know many things. However, when it comes to implementation – do we remember all of them? Or at least some of them when we need to?

When you read the below statements, you can relate to how easily we get to share it with our children, or students and expect them to learn and implement.

1. Think before you speak
2. Set your priorities right, ensure the right ones make it to your list
3. Do not juggle with too many things
4. All work and no play is never good
5. Sit and eat your meals properly
6. Never eat your lunch alone

Now, read all the above and see how many of these do we get to apply as adults on a daily basis. When do we stop needing to follow these?

• Think before you speak – Will ensure you are able to maintain your relationships for a long time! Be they with close knit family, relatives, work relationships or your friends circle.
• Set your priorities right, ensure the right ones make it to your list – Being able to identify the top-most priority for an individual at any given point is an art. For some it comes naturally, for others – they need help from their support system to be able to ensure the right ones make it to the list. Children need that extra bit of help to set their priorities right. While we provide that support to them, we need to ensure we are focusing on the right priorities for ourselves as well.
• Do not juggle with too many things – Constantly be on the lookout to cut down the activities that do not help you in the short term. Revisit how much of time & effort goes into these and what purpose does it solve? Revisit periodically if that purpose still holds true & continues to have the same priority in your life. Usually over a period of time when our priorities change, we tend to forget letting go for smaller activities that we continue to spend our time on. Identifying these and removing them for our schedules helps provide the time & effort to the priorities that genuinely need our current focus.
• All work and no play is never good – Be it a 15 minute walk, an exercise, buddying up to walk a mile, or taking a walk to get a glass of water few times a day, every bit counts. While we are adept at asking children to play (and not just video games), as we grow older, we tend to forget these to keep ourselves active and fit.
• Sit and eat your meals properly – Eating meals while studying or working, or watching TV does not help us focus on the food. Even if it takes 10 minutes to eat a meal, try to sit together and eat without any distractions. It feels different, as we start having real conversations with those whom we are sharing the table with.
• Never eat your lunch (or any meal) alone – Be it at work or college, or at home, try to coordinate eating your meals with someone. It lightens up our mood and we get to come out of our mental zones and start mingling with real people. Exam times, last minute presentations and many reasons may come up to skip this, however try not to make it your operating norm!

Commit to making one small change in any of the above that resonates. Not just you, those around you will also start noticing the change over a period of time!