HEALTHY LIFESTYLE · AUGUST 2018
PRIORITIES
ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT YOU HAVE NAMED THREE SPECIFIC THINGS THAT WOULD MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER,
LET ME POSE ONE MORE QUESTION: CAN YOU DEFEND YOUR CHOICE TO OMIT ANY OF THESE THREE THINGS
FROM YOUR SCHEDULE THIS WEEK?
All of us have urgent things that will have to be attended to before
this day ends—phone calls, appointments, sales calls, deadlines,
interruptions, etc. But some of us will also do our versions of the
things you named earlier—like planning next week’s big presentation
or making three extra calls, telling someone “I love you,” helping
children with homework or taking time to read the Bible and pray for
a few minutes.
The difference in people who tend to life’s really important things
and those of us who simply react to whatever happens in a day and
live the scripts others write for us is called discernment. Maybe you
prefer to call it setting priorities or putting first things first.
It is absurdly easy to fall into the activity trap. That’s when you think
that being busy is the same thing as being productive. We humans
can equate having done huge amounts of unimportant things with
having done something that is actually significant. They just aren’t
the same.
Moving quickly and efficiently is important only if your movement
is in the direction of some worthy goal. Because you took the time
at the start of this piece to name three specific steps toward noble
ends, why not take some time now to figure out how to include them
in today’s schedule for yourself?
You may need to cut out some waste and cancel some unimportant
things, but you will be better for it. You will have started to practice
discernment between the things in life that really matter and all the
second-rate distractions we let get in the way of doing them.
You likely know the writings of Stephen Covey. His 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People has sold widely and helped many people advance
toward a more unobstructed view of career, family and personal life.
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule,” insists Covey,
“but to schedule your priorities.”
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9 HEALTHY MAGAZINE
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else,
and live righteously, and he will give you
everything you need” (Matthew 6:33 NLT).
By Rubel Shelly