The Power Of Choosing What Matters

Imagine climbing a ladder with so much zeal, enthusiasm, speed and skill. Then after you have gone more than halfway through the ladder, you suddenly discovered that you are actually climbing the wrong ladder. All the efforts you have put in, the zeal, the speed, all of them would have been wasted. This is when you will realise that being efficient is not the same thing as being focused on the right priorities. That is, you may be doing something, but if it is not the right thing, you may not get the right result. This is why I believe that prioritisation is better and beats efficiency, because direction is often more important than speed.

Doing what matters is the pathway to achieving success, not just being busy. You can be busy and still not be productive. Like in an office, a staff might have their table littered with documents, they will also be seen going here and there, looking busy, but at the end of the business day, you cannot point out to any significant impact they have created. Busyness is not the same thing as being productive. They often say that "practice makes perfect," but I tell you that it is also possible for someone to perfect on the wrong task. Moving with speed does not mean arriving at the destination, it is your direction that determines your arrival. Success is not about executing every task, it is about selection. So make a choice of what matters.

If everything is important to you, then nothing is actually important to you. You cannot do everything at the same time and expect to get the best of every of them. There is a need for prioritisation, and focus. A lot of people take pride in the fact that they are busy - they wake up early in the morning, get prepared, leave the house, attend series of meetings, reply messages, undertake numerous tasks, etc, at the end of the day, they may feel very exhausted, but not really fulfilled. It is not actually how long you have been busy that counts, but the results you have obtained. Someone running around a roundabout is also very busy and expending energy, but they are not making advancements. This is how a lot of people's daily activities are. If you spend so much energy on tasks that do not lead you to your goal, you may not find the fulfillment you want.

In order to choose what matters, you need clarity of mind. You have to ask yourself a sincere question that you need to answer - "what really moves your life forward, and which activities are directed towards the fulfillment of your dreams?" Prioritisation is the discipline to select what matters to you and give it your undivided attention, energy, and time, in order to see it fulfilled. That is, saying no to what does not add positively to you, and saying yes to what serves your best interest. There is no point in wasting time on what will eventually not add value to you, so that you will not just be progressing in futility.

True success and true progress normally comes from aligning your efforts with your purpose. If you are climbing the right ladder, even a slow step that you take up will count significantly towards success. Similarly, when you are on the right pathway, every step you take will draw you closer to arriving at the destination. You cannot win a race when you are running on the wrong track. You may want to do a lot of things at the same time, but in order to achieve a better result, you have to learn to place them in the order of priority.

Prioritisation will always beat efficiency. Efficiency may be about doing things faster, but when it comes to getting them done better, then you need prioritisation. This is because you will tend to do what is required first, and focus on the major, instead of focusing on the minor. Remember that it is not in the volume of what you have done that will give you the results you want, but doing the right thing.

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