Be Led By Your Priorities
Hey team! All right, here we are again. It’s a wonderful week, and I wanted to read you a quote by a man named Miles Monroe. He passed away a few years ago. He was a leadership expert with a lot of experience. And he talked a lot about purpose and people’s lives when it came to leadership and that function. Now, I’m not saying that every single person is going to be running a company, a team, or managing this or that. But everybody has to manage their own lives. They have to be a leader for themselves, in their own sphere of influence. At the same time, they need to be a leader for their family, whether they are the husband or wife in a family.
Maybe you’re just leading yourself right now, but if you end up being married and having a significant other in your life that you’re caring for and working with, once you get married, you kind of become a team. I’m celebrating 31 years of marriage this month. It’s truly important to think through those kinds of things—what your purpose is and how to be great at leading yourself in that relationship. As you become a parent, working with your kids and being a great leader and example for them to follow is really important. Then again, in your community, you’re leading there too.
The quote is this: “Don’t be pushed by your problems; be led by your dreams. Govern your life by priorities and not pressures.” Monroe also said, “Govern your life by priorities and not pressures.” Don’t let problems be the thing that runs your life.
“Don’t be pushed by your problems; be led by your dreams. Govern your life by priorities and not pressures.”
We get so easily consumed by our daily lives and the fires that are burning around us that we’re running around trying to stomp out the fire. It reminds me of a time when I was in the Marine Corps. We were in Yakima, not too far from here. It was summertime. Our platoon went out to a gun range to practice shooting. It was really hot and dry, and when we got to the M60 machine gun. Every four rounds and the same thing with the SAW (a squad automatic weapon)—the fire rate, a 5.56 round belt-fed, is literally a thousand rounds a minute. Every fourth round in these guns is a tracer round, which lights up at night, and even during the day you can see the round because it has a little flame trailing behind it. This helps you adjust your fire by seeing where the tracer rounds are hitting the target, hopefully.
Well, in the dry weather, the grass would catch on fire. We’d be lined up with six or seven of us firing, and suddenly we’d hear, “Ceasefire! Ceasefire!” Then everyone would be running downrange, 50 to 200 yards, stomping out the grass because it was catching on fire. We did that four, five, six times. It was a good exercise, but then we had to pull out the tracer rounds. By the time we removed every fourth round, put the belts back together, and everything, it got dark, so we were sitting out there in the dark firing with the Humvee lights behind us. Now, in the dark, we could use tracer rounds, but it was still too dry, so we couldn’t use them. We were trying to shoot at targets, but it ended up being a huge waste of time.
We get so easily consumed by our daily lives and the fires that are burning around us that we’re running around trying to stomp out the fire.
Now you’re probably saying, “Chad, I got lost. You’re on a rabbit trail.” Actually, I’m not. That activity wasted the entire day because we spent so much time dealing with the fires instead of achieving the training objectives. By the time we were shooting in the dark with lights behind us, we couldn’t really see the target out there. We were just wasting time, wasting ammo, and we still had to clean the guns afterward. It was a useless exercise for the purpose of getting the job done. We sometimes lose our priorities because we’re running around putting out fires. We lose our purpose because we’re consumed by these fires.
Instead of being led by our dreams, we’re being led by our problems and the fires that are going on around us.
Now you’re saying, “Oh, okay, now I get it, Chad.” That’s what I’m saying. Think about it in your personal life right now—how many fires are you chasing? How many opportunities are you losing because you’re being led by your problems?
Are you letting the fires take control of your daily life instead of your priorities? Something to think about. As I’m sitting here talking to you, things are flooding into my mind that are fires distracting me from my priorities. Even at my age, almost 49 years now, I still need the same lesson we’re talking about today.
As you go through the rest of this week, think about what kinds of fires are preventing you from the opportunities for success in your personal life. Are you being led by your priorities, or are you letting your problems run roughshod over your life? Something for you to think about and process.
God bless you. Have a wonderful week. I hope you’re enjoying the rest of this fall and the holiday season. Remember, let’s keep being valuable, because nothing else we do will matter if we don’t. I’ll see you guys next week.
