What we value in our normal life is where we spend most of our time. But when circumstances converge we alter our priorities. We adapt given our current circumstance. I heard someone talk about how his priorities changed as he and his wife were getting ready for a vacation. The husband valued being on time and he scheduled his calendar accordingly. His goal was to pack the car and pull out of the driveway by 8am. His priority was to stay on schedule and to start their vacation. The car was packed and he was ready to leave. As he was trying to encourage his wife to hurry up, he crossed the line. He asked her to hurry one too many times and she was frustrated. His priority changed from getting out the door on time to not making his wife frustrated.
They were behind schedule when they left the driveway. In an effort to stay on schedule and arrive at their destination on time that evening they had to pick up the pace. As they were driving down the highway, he was driving about 10 miles over the speed limit in an effort to make up time. He noticed a police car along side of the highway and his priority changed again to not getting a speeding ticket.
The story is a simple reminder that in the course of a few hours, our priorities can change a number of times. Our priorities are in constant convergence with our present circumstances. Our priorities will change as the circumstances change around us. As we place the big rocks first, place our priorities into our four quadrants of urgent and important, make our daily to-do list, and add time to our calendar for those important things, it is important to remember that our priorities will change as we move through the days, weeks, months and years. Just as we evaluate our current priorities given our present circumstance, we need to evaluate where we are with accomplishing our big priorities; love, family, relationships. As life converges, and we adjust and adapt, make sure that our adaptations don’t throw us off tract from achieving our true priorities.
