The BOLD (In 1943, There Were No Priorities)

The Whisper (What is your Important Thing?)

Once upon a time, the word priority meant “something that you do or deal with first because it is more important or urgent than other things.”  (This is according to the Cambridge online dictionary)

Somewhere in the middle of the last century, we decided that one of something that should be the only thing is not enough and we began, increasingly, to use the word priorities.  The chart below shows an n-gram chart of the word. This is a survey of the instance of a given word in books published by year.  As you can see, we didn’t start to really use priorities until about 1944.  An argument could be made that a country fighting and winning wars in opposite hemispheres might need a word to describe divided attention.

Charting the Rise of A Word–Priorities

The question, then, is what is dividing our attention right now.

We can only have one priority.  This is true in our life, in our year, in our week, in our day and in our moment.  The closer we get to choice in the moment, the more flexibility and agility we have in selecting a priority.  That is the power and the deep challenge with priority.

The Priority Cascade

How, then, do we know if we are making a good decision in the moment?  The priority of the moment is the bottom pool in a long, cascading waterfall of what’s important.  Let’s look at the priority cascade:

• Life Priority At the top of the cascade is the river that provides the water that will flow all the way down to the pool of the moment at the bottom of the priority waterfall.  Soren Kierkegaard said, “Life can only be understood backward.  But it must be lived forwards.”  It is tempting to think that you have to wait for the last chapter for the big reveal.  What was my life about, after all?   We do have the power to set and nurture our priority for our life.  This is your mission statement.  It is your big, compelling why.  This is the highest level of meaning and it sets your overarching priority.  If I’m going to live my mission, I must make it the priority–the one thing that is most important.  It may be as simple as “Meet as many amazing people as possible” or as ambitious as “cure cancer.”
• Role Priority.  Our life cascades into multiple pools of focus and work. We wear many hats in this life–spouse, child, parent, friend, employee, owner, volunteer, student.  In order to realize our life mission, each of the roles in this level of the cascade must be infused with complimentary purpose.  In this way, you can have a priority for each role that is related in theme and, therefore, points to your life’s overarching purpose.
• Season Priority.  Our roles spill down into pools of projects and endeavors.  A season may be as small as the lead up to an event and as large as a career.  When we find ourself in the midst of a season, it is important to set a priority.  This can be done by asking the question, “I am engaging in this endeavor in service of what?”  and “How does this endeavor bring me closer to realizing my life priority?”
• Annual Priority.  Our lives are conveniently divided into ready-made units–one rotation around the sun.  By looking at the roles we fill and the seasons in which we find ourselves, we can set a priority for the year.  It might involve setting a word for the year.  It might involve setting one key metric by which you will know that you have utilized the year to move as close to your life priority as possible.  What is this year about?
• Quarterly Priority.  A 90 sprint is often the perfect unit of focus.  It is long enough to be challenging and to allow for the work necessary to achieve a goal. It is short enough that it feels possible.  By tying the priority for the quarter to the pools above it in the cascade, we can focus on the one thing that leads to the bigger one thing.
• Monthly, Weekly and Daily Priority.  At this point, the cascade spills into each of these smaller units.  Do you have a plan in place to make good decisions for each of these levels of priority?  As we’ve seen, the smaller units of priority setting can respond to the demands at that level and can tie to the top of the cascade.
• In the Moment Priority.  If you’ve worked your way down from the top of the waterfall, it becomes easier to make decisions in the moment. The question becomes, “What is the thing I will choose to do right now that will have the biggest impact on the levels of priority above this moment. In other words, “I will do this because it has the biggest impact on the most important thing.”

Clarity

Commanding a view of each pool in the cascade supports the clarity that we crave.  When you can see what each pool requires we can align our actions with purpose.  By aligning our action with purpose, we can be sure that we are getting the right things done.  By getting the right things done, we can achieve the most powerful, satisfying and meaningful ends.

How About You?

Have you created a written record of your mission, vision, and goals?  If you would like to align your roles with your lower pool planning, you can download the Your Boldest Year Ever planning sheet.    This sheet will guide you through the process.

I’d love to hear from you–what are your go-to nurturing rituals and activities? How do you take care of yourself?  Join us on Facebook to share your tips and reflections.