I have to clarify and add to yesterday’s post, If you don’t know your priorities, you’re mostly moving away from what you care about most. In it I wrote “If you can’t distinguish which of your top ten priorities is the top, you’re spending 90 percent of your life moving away from what you value most. I’d bet most Americans spend most of their time and other resources on things that detract from a better life.”
Time spent working on low priority projects is time detracted from high priority ones. The college students I mentioned yesterday who flit from project to project are mostly not working on what they value most. They likely don’t know what they value most if they work that way. You don’t find it from contemplating or traveling the world. You learn it by making hard choices between high priorities. Sometimes you choose a lower priority. Only by finding that you misspent that time do you learn which choice you valued.
When you know your values and priorities, you come to see low value options like parasites. Leeches. They suck the blood from life.
I’d rather do nothing, or just sit and ponder, than work on my third highest priority. Doing nothing doesn’t distract me from what I value more. Working on low value projects keeps me from my potential. I think most people are afraid to choose nothing over their third highest choice. Most people, I think, would be happy working on any of their top twenty priorities, not realizing what value was sucked from their lives.
If I’m honest, I do work on low priorities more than I think I should. I’m tempted as much as anyone, but I do so less than ever.
Almost a decade and a half ago I posted some useful illustrations of why choosing is hard. I recommend reading the posts they’re in: