Doing the Right Thing(s): Part 1

"Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things." --Steven Covey

Oh why, Mr. Covey, why? Why do you challenge us so?

How many of us fill our lives with more and more and more, doing everything as quickly as we can just so that we can get on with the next thing? I know I fall into this category more often than I'd like to admit. I mean, in the last fifteen minutes I swept and mopped the floor (while dragging a towel with one foot in order to dry it at the same time), changed and fed the baby, put him to sleep while the other kids "helped mop," transferred the laundry into the dryer, got the three middle kids ready for bed, said their prayers, set out their school clothes, went back up to quiet them down (twice) then tidied their bathroom, and all the while I have been back and forth writing this blog. Sound familiar? Well, I don't know about you, but I need to take some recovery time just thinking about it!

And in that hurried pace, while we do get a lot done, we often fail to prioritize correctly. We often find that things don't go as smoothly as they could because we do the wrong things, or at least, we do things in the wrong order. If we don't take time to pause and think (asking what the end goal is and what needs to get done right now in order to get there) and plan out a path (perhaps getting input from our significant others when our brains boycott the efforts....and in my case getting that input before I realize I need it!), then we frantically go through the day, often making a mess of things and getting frustrated that we have so much to clean up or correct or replace (again) afterwards.

Is this quick pace of life worth it? Does it really get the results we want?

(If you are answering "well duh, no" maybe you'd like to write tomorrow's post....hee hee, just kidding! But I hope you will check in again tomorrow to see where we are going with this.)