The world is not to be put in order - the world is in order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order.
Henry Miller
I suspect that most people feel that they are not living their own priorities ... and that the biggest excuse in our modern day is the busy-ness of our lives. An analysis of the answers we give to the commonest of all questions we ask each other, ‘How are you doing?’, I believe will reveal that we feel out of control of our own lives. Life is too busy. The pace is too fast. The demands we experience simply don’t allow us to live according to what we believe is right and best. It explains what we hear so often: ‘I know I am supposed to …, but …’
However, at least in the way it appears, our busy-ness does not necessarily equate being active and productive. How many hours do we for instance spend traveling? If you had a ‘devil’s advocate’ who knows your every action and thought and challenges the usefulness and effectiveness of it for a week long, how will it change the picture? Again, I suspect, that the ‘busy’ feeling sometimes has more to do with what is going on in our minds than the reality of our commitments or actions. I wonder if it is not another way of saying that we feel confused and overwhelmed. But then that would be too close to sounding like being incompetent or a failure – the worst thing that can happen to us!
What we cannot dispute is the fact that we are more exposed to knowledge stress today than ever before. Knowledge stress can lead to a sense of confusion and being overwhelmed and restless. Knowledge stress as it typically manifests in the business world and impacts on leaders, has two main drivers: ‘The incessant drive to acquire and use knowledge before one’s competitors and the increasingly sophisticated workforce who have distinctive views and attitudes about the role of the leader, their work, and themselves.’ (The Leadership Triad – Dale Zand). Leaders and their staffs face turbulent, complex global situations each day. Forces around the globe interact, affecting product, market, and investment decisions. Ever had the following experience as you are driving to work: As you are trying to figure out what your next step should be you get the feeling that it is like searching for a black cat in a dark room when you're not sure that the cat is still in the room? The fact that you are not sure how much real effect your efforts have, adds to your confusion. While some outcomes can be linked to things you initiate, others happen despite what you do. Clearly, the complexity of our lives and the exposure to endless information and views about anything one can think of, impacts negatively on the clarity of our thinking and orientations in life – if we can’t find a way to process and distill the information to a point where our minds and hearts can find rest and peace. We crave for simplicity as we believe that we simply don’t have the time to organise our minds and determine our priorities.
The way I see it, things will only change for us once we admit that we indeed do live our priorities. We live the way we do, because we have prioritised in that way. Perhaps not consciously, yet with detail analysis we have to admit, we ultimately choose the things we do above other options. Moreover, our priorities become evident in our actions of the past, not in our ideals or future plans. It’s too easy to come up with a list of ideals and resolutions year in year out and then tell ourselves we have prioritized. The test of our priorities is our actions of today, yesterday, last week, last month or year.
Can there be anything more serious and important than to take time out and to empty your mind from all the external stimuli? Since, in our modern lives, we are not used to doing so we naturally fear the consequences. What if I discover that I don’t like myself the way I am? Will I have the courage to make the necessary changes? What if I discover that I am a coward? Again it’s a choice to face the truth and trust the fact that you can only be better off by discovering the truth than continue living a lie. Furthermore, taking out time to empty your mind and determining the essence of who you are, who you want to be and who you can trust to sustain you and put your faith in, needs to be a habit rather than a once off exercise. Only then can peace, serenity and clarity of thoughts and priorities triumph over busy-ness, confusion and flurry.
Remember – life will only settle down if you choose to settle it down. We don’t see things the way they are, we see them the way we are.
Best wishes
Gerhard
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