How Do you Spell WERK?

In our Free Store conversation Friday morning we started with the question, "How do we focus on what is really important in our lives?"  It is not always easy to know what is really important and it can be even more challenging to stay focused on the important things.  Steven Covey in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People says that we need to learn to put first things first in our lives.  We talked about how sometimes the urgent things and the easy things can actually distract us from the really important things.

Jack told us about a saying he had heard that had stuck with him over the years.  "The lack of planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part."  He said that urgent things are not always as important as they seem.

Sheila told us that after her husband Dave died that she was feeling very sorry for herself and didn't even want to leave her room.  She said that a friend had helped her realize the importance of getting back into things even though she didn't like what he said at the time.  She told us that by just getting up and coming to the Free Store that her attitude had changed.  She also said that she realized that Dave would want her to get on with life.

Joelle said that sometimes the fear of failure can keep us from doing what we know is important.  She said that she had been looking for a job for so long that right up until her orientation at Ikea last week she was afraid she wouldn't get the job.  She said that it has been so long since she had a job that she asked a co-worker, "How do you spell work?  WERK?" which made us laugh.  Jack said that ignorance can be a reason that we procrastinate and put off doing the important things.  Joelle told us that her dad had pulled money out of an IRA account and it had cost him about $4,200 at tax time and that he realized too late how important it was to be well informed about such decisions.

George said "my mind says I'm wasting my time.  I'm 51 and trying to get my GED."  He also said he was beginning to realize how important it was for him to get his Driver's License.  We talked about how important things do not always give us immediate gratification which makes it harder for us to stay focused on them.  Jack said that we had to learn how to prioritize things in order to accomplish what was important.  He said that he has a list in his car of eight things that he needs to do today in the order in which he will do them which made us smile.

We talked about how the urgent can often take priority over the important.  Someone said that its like when the phone rings and you drop everything else to answer it.  The phone call may not be very important but because it is urgent we give it our attention.  Joelle said that is why Ikea won't even let their employees carry their cell phones while on the job.

As the conversation moved to a conclusion we talked about prioritizing and then staying focused on the things that were really important in our lives.  Someone said that we shouldn't let the urgent things or the fun things detract us from doing the important things.  Jack said that "all work and no play make Jack a dull boy" which made us laugh.  We decided that having fun is just as important as anything else in our lives.