Book excerpt: 10 Secrets for a Fulfilling Life - Jörg Gantert Life Secret: Differentiating between important and unimportant

On January 1, 1997, I woke up relatively early in the morning at 9:00 a.m. after a long New Year's Eve party. An inner voice and the associated inner feeling made it clear to me that this would be a very special year. In October, I would have the honor and opportunity to achieve my long-awaited goal at the Karate World Championship in Turkey: becoming Karate World Champion. Since my earliest childhood, I had dreamed of fulfilling this vision. Many decades of hard work and countless hours of training lay behind me, and this year I could achieve my goal. At the same time, I was aware that my business studies were coming to an end and I had a lot to learn. Many exams had to be taken, and the oral exam required utmost concentration. But there were also the apartment, insurance, car, and groceries that needed to be paid for. At that time, I had already started earning my living with seminars and lectures. Besides recommendations I thankfully received from satisfied customers, appropriate marketing measures were necessary to enter the lecture and seminar market. All these actions, along with my seminar and training trips, took up a lot of time. Additionally, I aimed to establish my future lecture and seminar activities on a solid foundation. So, I had to diligently write applications to work in the human resources department of a larger company for a few years to gain practical experience. But there were also my family, my girlfriend, friends, cultural interests... How could I do justice to all these things? The day only has 24 hours. Questions flooded my mind. Perhaps you know this or a similar situation from your own life. Maybe you often feel overwhelmed, unable to meet the high demands and expectations of work, family, or hobbies. Perhaps you feel exhausted in the evenings after a strenuous day at the office and can't muster the energy for anything else. Or you have packed your weekend with appointments, rushing from one to the next and just want to collapse on the sofa afterwards. All of these are clear signs of an increasing negative energy balance and can quickly lead to health-damaging effects. Find your priorities and integrate them into your life! The moment you become aware of what is most important to you in your life, you can exercise your freedom to "choose." You can decide to integrate into your weekly routine the things that are most important to you. Importance is related to both results and quality of life. When something is important, it contributes to your top life priorities, your values, and also increases your satisfaction and joy in life. Unfortunately, many people do the opposite. They get entangled in countless trivial matters, trivialities, and other unimportant things. They allow themselves to be driven by the urgent and act like deadline-driven workers. By focusing solely on the urgent, they are often catapulted from one problem to the next. They easily get distracted and increasingly lose the ability to take on the role of an actor and actively shape their lives. If we don't have a clear idea of what is truly important to us, what people, things, or experiences really mean something to us, we lose a significant amount of personal effectiveness and quality of life. What are the most important things to you? What things mean a lot to you in your life? "I don't have time during my work to think about or take breaks for relaxation and energy. My job doesn't allow it. It may work in other professions, but not in mine!" I hear these and similar statements very often. The consequences often come later. Initially, exhaustion, tension, and sleep disorders increase. Subsequently, the feeling of burnout takes its course. However, since daily breaks for recovery and energy are not initially seen as urgent, many people leave them out and prefer to leave them to their colleague "wimp." These things are of utmost importance for our performance, motivation, and joy, to have energy for inspiring activities even in the evening. Allow me to repeat the question mentioned above. What is really important to you? Important for your health, well-being, and vitality? Important for your family relationships, friends, and social contacts? Important for your professional advancement? Think, for example, about your health care, your recovery times, valuable hours with your family and friends, planning your future, or professional development. These activities are not urgent in themselves but are crucial for long-term happiness and a fulfilling life. How would your life change positively if you were to tackle one of the activities mentioned above and permanently integrate it into your life? To what extent would your quality of life improve by devoting more time to these important things than before? The key to a fulfilling life lies in the ability to organize each week of your life according to your priorities and act accordingly, thus living your own values. You can start doing this right now!