Importance
When you realize that few things are really important, this sets you free. You feel lighter. Things feel simpler. The chaos feels manageable.
Sure, there’s a barrage of things that you need to do, that need to happen, that are not happening fast enough. There are tasks to get done, bills that need to get paid, people to talk to, opportunities that need to be chased. And these things matter. But there is an order to things, and there are some that are more important than the rest.
Your health. Your family’s health. Your personal mission.
This is not to say that the other things don’t matter. They do. But almost everything else comes after these first three. This is not an excuse to let go of everything else, but rather, to put things in perspective. If anything, understanding this order liberates you from how much you ought to put of yourself in all the areas of your life, and how much things ought to take time and energy from you.
When we feel the Overwhelm, it feels like everything is crashing down because we put everything on the same plane. But things are not on the same plane, and they never really are at any given time. There’s the first three then there’s everything else. Even the first three have an order. And everything else also has an order.
To reduce the Overwhelm, it’s imperative we understand, internalize, and most importantly, commit to the order.
What if the order is different for you? That’s fine, but the premise is the same: know what the order is, commit to that order. What happens after is what it is. But at least you did things according to the order that’s most important to you.
December 8, 2024