Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
What These Words Mean
Most days, you can move through your life on pure momentum. You answer the messages, keep the plans, nod in the right places, and somewhere in the middle of it you realize you haven’t checked in with yourself at all.
Starting with “getting in touch” points to an active choice, not a vague hope. On the surface, it sounds like reaching out and making contact, the way you would pick up the phone instead of waiting for it to ring. Underneath that simple phrasing is the idea that you can be close to your own life and still be out of contact with the part of you that actually feels, wants, and knows.
Then the quote narrows it to “your true self,” and that word “true” carries weight. In plain terms, it’s the version of you that isn’t just performing, pleasing, or reacting. More deeply, it’s the place where your values live before you edit them, where your preferences exist before you justify them, where your yes and no land in your body before you talk yourself out of them. It’s not a perfect self. It’s the honest one.
When it says it “must be” your priority, the tone turns firm. That phrase doesn’t sound like a suggestion you try when you have time; it sounds like a requirement you build your days around. Emotionally, it names something many people sense but hesitate to admit: that neglecting yourself doesn’t stay neutral, it quietly reorganizes everything else. The “must” is a small alarm bell.
“And” is the connector that links “getting in touch” to making it “your first priority,” turning self-knowledge into the starting point rather than an afterthought.
Finally, “first priority” puts it at the top of the list, above the fixes, above the proving, above the hustle to look like you have it together. On the surface, it’s about sequence: you do this before you do the next thing. Deeper than that, it suggests a kind of inner ordering. When you know who you are, your decisions stop being a scramble for approval and start becoming a quieter alignment.
Picture a regular evening: you’re standing in the kitchen, the room lit softly, scrolling while the kettle makes its thin, familiar hiss. You keep thinking about what you should do next, who you should reply to, how you should handle tomorrow. Making “getting in touch” first could be as small as putting the phone down for one minute and asking: What am I actually feeling right now? What am I avoiding admitting? What do I need, not to be impressive, but to be okay with myself?
A helpful boundary here is that “true self” isn’t a weapon you use to excuse being careless with people. It’s not permission to say whatever you want and call it honesty; it’s an invitation to notice what’s real in you before you act, so your actions come from clarity instead of impulse.
I think the hardest part is that self-contact can sound gentle, but it often asks for courage.
Still, these words don’t fully hold in every moment. Sometimes you touch something real inside yourself and it doesn’t offer immediate direction, only discomfort. And sometimes “first priority” can feel like pressure when what you want is a little tenderness.
Behind These Words
Tom Hopkins is widely associated with practical motivation, especially the kind aimed at personal effectiveness and self-directed change. In that world, results matter, but results are often treated as an outside expression of an inside stance: confidence, clarity, and a willingness to choose your direction instead of drifting into it.
A saying like this fits naturally within a culture that rewards visible performance. In settings where people are encouraged to compete, to sell, to lead, or to constantly improve, it’s easy to become a bundle of techniques without a steady center. The emotional environment can be restless: always learning the next method, always trying to become more convincing, always polishing the external image. Against that backdrop, pointing you back to your “true self” is a corrective. It suggests that progress without self-knowledge can turn into a kind of self-erasure.
The emphasis on “first priority” also reflects a no-nonsense style of encouragement. Rather than treating inner work as a luxury, it frames it as foundational. If the attribution is repeated in different places, that’s common with widely shared motivational sayings, but the core message matches the kind of direct, personal-responsibility language people expect from a quote tied to Hopkins’ name.
About Tom Hopkins
Tom Hopkins is a motivational speaker and author known for teaching personal development and performance-focused mindset skills, especially in areas where self-direction and confidence are essential.
His reputation is built around straightforward guidance: set standards, practice what matters, and take responsibility for the inner choices that shape outward results. That practical tone helps explain why this quote is so firm. The phrase “must be” reflects an approach that doesn’t treat self-awareness as optional or decorative, but as the base layer beneath goals, habits, and communication.
When you connect his worldview to these words, the through-line is clear: if you aren’t in touch with what is real in you, you may still achieve things, but the achievement can feel strangely unowned. Prioritizing your “true self” is presented as the way to make your effort cleaner and your direction more self-chosen. The quote pushes you to start from identity and honesty, not from pressure and performance, so your life is guided from the inside out rather than managed from the outside in.
