14 LIVE BY PRIORITY

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you

can do something about it now.”

—Alan   Lakein

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the
Cat.
“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
Alice’s classic encounter with the Cheshire Cat in Lewis
Carroll’s Alices Adventures in Wonderland reveals the close
connection between purpose and priority. Live with purpose and you
know where you want to go. Live by priority and you’ll know what to
do to get there.
When each day begins, we each have a choice. We can ask,
“What shall I do?” or “What should I do?” Without direction, without
purpose, whatever you “shall do” will always get you somewhere. But
when you’re going somewhere on purpose, there will always be
something you “should do” that will get you where you must go.
When your life is on purpose, living by priority takes precedence.

GOAL SETTING TO THE NOW

As Ebenezer Scrooge profoundly discovered, our life is driven by the
purpose we give it. But there’s a catch even he had to confront.
Purpose has the power to shape our lives only in direct proportion to
the power of the priority we connect it to. Purpose without priority is
powerless.
To be precise, the word is priority—not priorities—and it
originated in the 14th century from the Latin prior, meaning “first.” If
something mattered the most it was a “priority.” Curiously, priority