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Are you your own big rock?
Earlier today, I spoke with two people who are each surfing both predictable and unpredictable series of waves in their lives. From health concerns to completing major work milestones to family transitions the things they are dealing with run the gamut of the stress inventory. But at the core for each of them is that they are both generally very selfless people who have put their spouses, children, employers and others needs ahead of or on par with their own needs and they now have to reconsider their own self identity.
The conversations made me immediately think about the Franklin Covey rock/jar demonstration about scheduling priorities.
I’ve always applied this “big rocks” lesson in my personal productivity by thinking of it as scheduling my roles and goals. For many years though, I was not one of my roles. My roles list historically looked something like this:
- Family member — Daughter, sister, aunt, niece
- Employee — Leadership and Subordinate
- Church member
- Board member/volunteer
- Student/learner (because I’m always taking one class or another)
As you look at that list, you’ll notice that I am nowhere on there. So, now my first bullet on my list is Kara and everything else comes after that. As I look at my roles and goals list each week it’s a good reminder that I have to schedule in a way that makes me a priority in my own life as well as all the other priorities that I think about for others.
