Priorities in Pageantry

“The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.”
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Pageantry has taught me so much about priorities in life – I am often reminded to make myself a priority.  You cannot be an effective titleholder if you don’t have priorities – you cannot say yes to everything nor can you double and triple schedule yourself and run yourself ragged.  At the end of every day your life and your year as a titleholder is what YOU want it to be.  Yes, you may have directors and coaches or sister titleholders and responsibilities but unless you prioritize your life how effective will you be? 

Before I competed for the Mrs. California title in September my husband and I had many conversations about how we would manage our life and add something else.  I simply told him I would have to do better about prioritizing  and organizing our day to day life.  After I won, he just smiled knowing that I now had to make good on that promise.   As a titleholder with a child’s schedule, a husbands schedule and my own it can be tricky but that is where team work comes in to play.  Prioritizing in our house often involves lengthy conversations however boils down to this: Grant and my work schedules are first consideration, then Krystina’s schedule (school, tutoring, soccer and track), then the Army (monthly drill, schools, etc.) and then my appearances.  It’s not that my passion isn't extremely important however my family has to come first because they are the reason that I can do what I do.  Sometimes it’s just not feasible to do it all and that is ok – I am not Super Woman no matter how hard I try I cannot be in 2 places at once.
 

 As we move into our new soccer season, along with preparations for Mrs. International and a LONG list of appearances and events prioritizing is even more important.  The beautiful part is that I have a wonderful husband, mother in law and daughter that are always in my corner to help out anywhere they can.  Truthfully I do not schedule things from 8-12 on Saturdays because that’s soccer day and it means the world to our family to watch Krystina follow her love of soccer, I make sure that if my husband only gets one day off with the family that I am home with the family.  Priorities are what makes us a family, what makes us strong and what makes me a wonderful Mrs. California...