first things first

our toddler loves his toys, and in particular his 'little people' from fisher price. he has a great collection from a trademe purchase hubby found. we often have 'breaks' from these lying around the living room by housing them in a large plastic storage box. the other week, isaiah and i were packing these away and i stumbled upon an epiphany that has helped me reflect on my busy, working-mama life...

we attempted to put everything into the box by putting all the little pieces into the box first, then laying the larger farmhouse and building pieces on top. we quickly realised that the lid would not fit on as we pushed down on it, trying to get it to clip shut. it struck me that everything had fitted before, so we tipped it out and tried again. this time, putting all the larger buildings and pieces in first. then placing the bits and pieces around these. they quickly slotted into the gaps and we ended up having space on the top to fold up a mat that he uses too! it wasn't that we had less to put away but in actually fact we could put more in because of how we had placed them.

this got me thinking about what i had in my own life, my priorities and responsibilities. what i do first, above the more important larger aspects, which can make me feel like not everything can 'fit' anymore!

so here are some thoughts that came from this simple exercise: the first things that need to be in our life, are our main priorities. our priorities are our family, our beliefs, our most special friends, our health and wellbeing. 

what comes next are those things that are important and support our main priorities. our career and choices, our aims and aspirations and anchors in our lives. the relationships we have that feed our positive motivations and passions.

and lastly what is poured through and fills the gaps should be the day to day jobs, chores that keep our bigger motivations and dreams going. i confess that these 'things' can sometimes take my priority; without me even meaning too.  charles e. hummel shares in his book, tyranny of the urgent, “your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.”  

that's so true, charlie, so true.

thanks for letting me share this with you! i wonder,  how do you handle the urgent things and the important things? feel free to share your pearls here.

:: holding on to the good ::