The thing about Priority
The Thing About Having Priority
It stands out a mile that prioritization is the blood of every Tom, Dick and Harry that is successful. Without prioritization; resources can’t be effectively allocated, resilience or determination will be a caricature, and vision will be a show of pussyfooting.
By any yardstick; you need to prioritize to get ahead in life. There is so much noise, distractions and interruptions in life. The day you decide to focus on what is important is the day that the frivolous things you are trying to hide from will increase their advertising budget to be on your radar, and with a good copywriter and badass graphics designer, God helps you to escape their grip. Mind you, this is not to scare you but rather to prepare you.
Seeing that these distractions are thick on the ground whilst your priorities are only a handful as they should be, you will need to develop a system that enables you to be in the pink and to do only that which is most important to you before the important and unimportant. One of the systems that I have used to prioritize and stick to my priority, is a system of reward. For example, if I need to finish a project in seven days; I make it a priority and set a reward for myself. When I want to lag on the project when procrastination and social media start playing their flute in my ears, the alluring reward like a sit out at one of my favourites spot or a movie time out will pull me out of their claws.
For priority to stand by you, you will need to defend it. If you change tack every time something appeals to you more than your priority, soon your priority will desert you in your pool of frivolousness. If it calls for it, you will have to take up the cudgels and fight to keep your focus on the most important things in your life: the things which Brain Tracy called “your biggest frog.” Learn to eat it first and to eat it always.
Write down the most important thing you want to achieve or pursue, keep it where you will be constantly reminded of it because the temptation to drift from it is high: you will need to keep it under your nose and in your face. Sometimes you will put a foot wrong as you write down your list of priorities. You will mistake important for most important, which like a child learning to walk is expected but the mistake must be corrected immediately if the child wants to gain mastery at walking.
Many people’s goals and visions have been gathering dust over the years because of their inability to prioritize and more so their lack of discipline to stick to their priorities. Many great things which would have been a hallmark of our society have been left to ruin because people are catching dust or chasing fireflies, especially with the unfurling of social media. For our tomorrow to be better than our today; those who are worth their salt must be willing to show the flag, and that starts by prioritising what’s important and sticking to it.
