You Don't Have Priorities

We talk about priorities. We talk about rearranging our priorities, figuring our priorities out. And we think we know what the word means. But do you? What if I told you you don't really have priorities? Let's talk about it. And, you know, let's start talking about it by talking about the word priority. It comes from the root word prior, which just means the next thing in line and the next thing in line.

You can just imagine a line of cars going through a checkpoint, the car at the very front. That is the priority. He passes through the next car becomes the priority and so on and so forth. Now, I was actually in a situation the other day where I was in traffic and somebody came around me on this one lane line of cars and they went on the shoulder and cut in front of me in line.

And I remember feeling slighted and frustrated and like I was the priority. And then this person then cut in front of me and they took priority over me in this line of cars, because I can exist in this space or they can exist in this space, but we can't coexist in the same space. That's called a car wreck.

And the word priority up until the 1900s was always singular. In the 1900s, we started pluralizing the word. And today we start talking about having lists of priorities so that if I talk to most people, I will get them to list me off five, ten, sometimes 20 priorities. And that's what we think they are. We think it's a list of important things which in a sense a priority is definitely an important thing.

However, what we are missing here is if you have two of them that you were trying to put into the same spot, that's called a car wreck. You can have a list of ten. Equally important priorities. How are you going to know which one to work on? How are you going to know which one to give your mental energy in your effort to when you're scheduling your time, you have to have a priority, and that one's going to be the one at the front of the line.

How would it change your life? How would it change the way you work and the way that you structure your time with your family and the way that you pursue your ambitions? If you started using priority only in the singular, what if you had a list of things to do? Yeah, you can have 25 things on the list to do, but the one at the top is the only one we call a priority.

And when that one has passed through the checkpoint or that one has been addressed, then we will talk about the next priority. But we cannot have a list of ten equally important things. Have you ever felt paralyzed by your goals? You looking at your goals like these are all really good things. I really want to accomplish all of them.

How am I going to do this? I think that paralyzing feeling comes from the fact that we're trying to make everything special, and if everything is special, then really nothing is special. We've got to give the top spot to something. And that's why I say you don't have priorities. You have a priority. Have you identified it today? What are you going to spend the next hour working on?

What are you going to spend the next day putting your energy into? That's your priority. Be careful about putting too many things on that list and then finding yourself in a situation where you can never feel like you've accomplished your goals because the priority list is too big. You just need to deal with the next thing in line.

Love to hear your feedback, your comments, your criticisms. Leave me a comment. Leave me a like. Tell me what you like to hear us talk about on here. And I'd be happy to answer any of your questions until then. I'll see you next time.