High Priorities

Priorities are funny. No matter who you are, you have them. You cannot escape them. Even if you make a conscious effort to have no priorities at all, you have made that a priority. Another funny thing about priorities is that some are decided consciously, and sometimes they have a way of sneaking up on you like a fox sneaks up on a poor defenseless Guinea Hen, except your priorities don’t eat you.

I’m not particularly proud of this aspect of my personality, but I recently realized that through the years, I’ve let priorities choose me more often than I’ve chosen them. This doesn’t sound like a particularly good thing, and that’s because it isn’t. This passive approach towards my priorities has definitely kept me from achieving certain things and caused me problems at times.

I think it’s important to understand that choosing our priorities is a major part of how we define and think of ourselves. Without doing that, I will always have questions about who I am and what I want. Stumbling upon an occasional nugget of gold is great, but invariably I will end up with more gold if I actually look for it instead of waiting to trip on it.

Why am I writing all of this mumbo-jumbo? I think I’m going through a time in my life where I am learning to take control of my priorities. It’s only taken 32 years. There are things I want to pursue in life that I haven’t yet. Somehow, these things have become more and more important to me and I am now starting to act like they are actual priorities. How do I know? Well I think that for something to be a real priority, you have to be willing to make sacrifices for it.

I’ve enjoyed doing Fantasy Baseball leagues online for years. I got very good at it, to the point where I made money off of them. It also took a lot of my time. This February, I decided that as much as I have enjoyed Fantasy Baseball, I value my time more, and so I didn't enter a team this year. And a couple of weeks ago, with several very specific priorities in mind, I decided to quit competitive bowling. Yes, folks, that means I won’t be bowling in any leagues next year. Without regular practice, I won’t realistically be able to compete in tournaments and roll-offs. I’ve enjoyed bowling competitively since I was 9 years old, yet this choice to stop bowling has filled me with hope and excitement, not sadness.

It’s strange how in some cases, you can specifically decide something will be a priority to you. But in other cases, priorities seem to change almost by themselves. They can act like your sense of taste, changing occasionally. And sometimes they stay real far away and blurry, and then at some point in time become closer and crystal clear. Keeping this blog is a good writing tool for me, so I think I’ll make it more of a priority. Expect more soon!