Leadership: First Things First

Stephen Covey in his Seven Habits of Highly Effectively People,
teaches us the habit of "First Things First" - setting our priorities
and doing those things that are important. In his book, Developing
Great Leaders, John Maxwell adds a wonderful note to this habit by
teaching us to "neglect things that don't really matter." He quotes
William James who said that that the art of being wise is "the art of
knowing what to overlook."

Our lives are filled with events and commitments that tug at our
scarcest resource - time. Knowing priorities, our first things first,
and complementing them with conscientious neglect of what is not
important are key learnings. Maxwell writes of the work of Dr.
Anthony Campolo who conducted a survey of 50 people over the age of
95. The survey had one question: "If you could live your life over
again, what would you do differently?" To this open-ended question
the following three dominant themes emerged:

If I had it to do over again, I would reflect more.
If I had it to do over again, I would risk more.
If I had it to do over again, I would do more things that would live
on after I am dead.

This week my you reflect on how your 'first things first' align with
how you would answer Campolo's question? Are there things that should
be neglected and in that benign neglect make your life richer and
fuller? Listen to the words of John Barrymore, stage and screen
actor, who said: "A man is not old until regrets take the place of
dreams." May you live all your dreams!