Busy, busy, busy. Everyone is busy and running here and there. As a child my favorite book was called Eastside Westside. It was about all the people who lived on the east side of town worked on the west side of town and all the people who lived on the west side of town worked on the east side of town. I had my sister and brother read it to me until they were sick of it. The point of that little memory is how busy people were, are and will be.
Busyness sucks your values out of your life unless you become intentional about finding and keeping them. When you are too busy you are tempted to obey the urgent and not the important. Just one more thing and then I will take time to do the important. But it never slows down.
When you know your values, I mean really know them and can tell someone your top 5 values if asked, then they can become a part of your decision-making process. When your values are vague and not formulated in a clear matter they do you no good. They don’t help you focus. So the tyranny of the urgent rules and the important things go undone. My guess is that if you are reading this and it rings true to you, you are still too busy to find your core values. I know the thinking. Tomorrow or next week I’ll do that. I have projects that are sitting waiting for tomorrow and tomorrow seems to never come.
I did one thing last summer that has been the best thing I did all year– I took time to find my values. Now they are helping me focus and choose which projects will get done and which will not get done. The ones that are sitting behind me on the desk are not getting done because my values dictate that I do more important activities not the ones crying out for attention but are only urgent.
I hope this make sense and you see yourself somewhere in it. Need help finding your values? Contact me at www.billgraybill.com and see if what happens.
