Daily Dose 11: The Value of Values and Priorities

After two days of possible problems, any of which threaten to stymie anyone’s noble attempts to draft a personal priority list, it may seem you’ve been asked to undertake an activity destined to fail. Far from being a wasted venture fraught with disappointment and shattered dreams (well, at least a waste of  some time, and maybe a sheet or two of paper), a life priority list is a positive step toward wise day to day use of your time.

Now that you (might) have a full list of items to work with, I’m going to ask you to consider another level of vagueness. I’ve encouraged you to write down everything you want to do, or have to do, not just within the next several days, but for your whole life. I’ll even go so far as to say, that the more menial you think your life is, the more helpful the list might be in the long run.

After Making a Big List, Then What?

After initial brainstorm-compiling and random idea-collecting, most of our lists are a jumble of different levels of living. Sorting out the levels is the next step.

Sorting life levels is another arena where priority stewardship provides superior clarity to time management. While any management system can help you track your progress toward fulfilling your stated priorities, no such system can tell you if what you are progressing toward is wise, good, or right. Specifically, such systems cannot help you discern what is best for you.

“Getting organized” without a framework of values and priorities is like beefing up muscles not attached to a skeleton. Muscles need their connection to a skeleton for their strength to produce useful results. Actually, unattached muscles are not much more than quivering blobs of potential strength.

Values and priorities shape the life skeleton that makes purposeful stewarding of life events a possibility. A well-considered collection of priorities provides a lifelong framework in which to both plan and evaluate life’s endeavors.

The Key Requirement to Develop Priorities

The key to preparing that “well-considered collection” comes back to asking the right questions to get the right answers. Right questions reveal unavoidable responsibilities and uncover secret unspoken wishes.  They show shallow motives for what they are and confirm the sense of what is imperative for us.  They also clear away the fog from the vagueness of “values,” our next area of attention. What question(s) will be the key(s) to unlock values?