We’re all guided by what we value and what we prioritize. Unfortunately, we can be quick to forget what is most important to us and let our priorities get out of line.

A few weeks ago, I shared my morning manifesto–12 points that I read over each morning to remind me of how I want to live my life.

I think it’s a great practice to keep our priorities at the forefront of what we do. Below I created a process for you to create your very own morning manifesto. I promise it’s worth the initial time investment.

Once you make your manifesto, could you share it with us in the comments? I’d love to see what you came up with.

How to Create Your Own Morning Manifesto

1. Identify the most important things in your life.

For me, this was easy: God, Niki, other people and my work. There is more than one category in some way for each of those important areas of my life.

A few questions to identify things that are important to you:

• With whom do you spend most of your time?
• With whom do you wish you spent more time?
• Whose opinion do you highly value?
• Where do you spent a lot of your money?

2. Record items you’re prone to forget.

I’m forgetful, especially when it comes to important things. That was one huge reason why I created my morning manifesto. A few things that I’m quick to forget: that people are broken and hurting, that my life is short, sin is deadly, gossip destroys, and that generosity is incredibly important.

Here are some questions to surface things you’re prone to forget but hope to remember:

• What mistakes do you seem to make continually?
• What misjudgments do you want to correct?
• What are you not doing that you want to do?
• What lies do you believe that need to be corrected with truth?

3. Create simple, powerful statements around those important and often forgotten things.

None of my heading statements in my manifesto are more than 10 words. Some are only two words long. I think the simpler we can make our statements, the more likely they are to stick with us.

Once I created those heading statements, I added a few sentences of reminders below each. This reinforces the statements. If I’m really in a rush and I don’t make the time to read through the whole manifesto, I can at least read the headlines and it will jog my memory and remind me of the life I want to live.

I think this step could take the longest, because it’s easy (for me) to get wordy and try to say too much. Be ruthless in refining your key points so they will actually stick with you.

4. Add scripture or an inspiring quote to back up each point.

I can make short, pithy sayings all I want, but if there isn’t truth behind them they mean nothing.

It was important for me to have something I know is completely true–the Bible–backing up what I want to remind myself. On top of that, hopefully once I’ve read through my manifesto enough times, I’ll have the Bible verses memorized. Bonus!

I think quotes would work well too, but scripture was the route I chose to go.

5. Put the manifesto somewhere you will see it each day.

I’m bad about this. I only have my manifesto stored in Evernote. I’ll get it printed at some point, but I just haven’t made that a priority. I think having a tangible document better solidifies it into our minds.

You could put it in your Bible, tape it to your bathroom mirror, put it on your car dashboard–wherever you know you’ll see it each day and read through when you wake up.

6. Commit to reading it each morning.

I’ve certainly fallen short in this area. I haven’t read it every day, but I never regret taking an extra few minutes in the morning to set my heart for the day ahead. I need to grow in being more disciplined in this area. It’s worth every second.

To stay committed, keeping it short helps. Mine is 12 points and takes less than 4 minutes to read, but perhaps your manifesto will only be 6 points or maybe you’ll have 20. The longer it grows, the more likely I am to forget things, so try to keep it as short as possible while still having all of your key priorities and reminders.

7. Revise as you grow.

For me, once Niki and I have children I’ll certainly want to add something about my kids and being a dad into my manifesto. For the most part, very few things will change. My priorities today are the priorities I want for a lifetime.

Question: Have you made your morning manifesto yet? Would you share it (or a link to it) in the comments?

Photo provided by Mattox