Priorities

Priority, something given or meriting attention before competing alternatives, that's what the online dictionary says...however if we look at it closely we can also understand it in a different way.....priority also means not giving importance to the stuff you consider unwanted in your life....

So what are these unwanted things....unwanted things can be a lot of stuff....like sleeping at home when you must be in the office working on your project to meet the deadline....or playing when you actually must be studying for your exams....

But there are some cases in which we actually discard things by not prioritizing them because we dont feel that they are important 'at the moment', but later regret for having done so.....you might be very busy with your work, trying to meet a deadline.....and at that time your friend calls up asking for five minutes of your time....at that moment you prioritize....work ???? or friend ????...hmmmmm...and you decide work is more important...and if you dont finish your work you will miss your deadline...so you tell your friend that you are busy and you promise him you will call him back as soon as you are out of office....and he being a good friend cuts the call after saying goodbye....and you are done, for the moment.....

Later when you are done with all your work in office or after a few days maybe....you get reminded of that call....so you call your friend to ask him what the matter is about....its only then that you know that he had had an accident and had called you up because he needed a very urgent favor....but its already days now and he had called other people to help him...and he is all well now....you are shocked by this news and ask him why he hadn't called you again ?.....cause you would have definitely done something if you would have known what had really happened....but he replies that its all over now and thankfully everything is well....you listen to him and decide that you will be there for him the next time he needs you.....

A simple story....I believe that this sort of thing must have happened in everyone's life....

But there is one thing in this story that I would like to point out to you...i'll pose it as a question,based on this story for you to answer....

When your friend said everything is fine and that he had other friends to help him.....Did you feel that you made a mistake not listening to what he wanted to tell you in the call ?....

There may be only two options to this question...Yes and No....Whats your answer ?.....

If you said 'My answer is NO' then you have nothing more to read in this post....but if you said 'My answer is YES' then please proceed....

My personal answer however is 'Yes'.....because at times, knowingly or unknowingly we disregard certain things in life which we dont consider important, cause we decide at the moment....these decisions are a part of our day to day life....and we compare two things at that particular moment in time and give importance to things which we consider are important in that instant, not thinking of the future....

We must however understand that all our actions have consequences....some consequences may happen in a day or two...like forgetting to wish your mom on her birthday at 12 AM,with her being sad the next day...other consequences may happen over many years....like broken marriages which happen often nowadays because people are so obsessed with work so that they dont have time for their spouse.....

So my thought for today is 'People must learn to set priorities based on what they want in the future, and that must decide their action in the present, the past can only be used to learn from your mistakes and must help you set your priorities right ( in case you didn't set them right the first time)'

If you want your friend to be with you in the future....then learn to give a little more attention to him in the present....and from your past learn the lesson so that you may never repeat the same mistake of ignoring a friend in need again...

So summing up....

Create a priority structure for your FUTURE....

Act on those priorities in the PRESENT.....

Learn from your mistakes of not prioritizing properly from your PAST....