What’s Important?
“One man's mission is another man's minutiae.”
– Stephen Covey
There are times something seems so immensely important that I am baffled to realize others do not feel the same way about it. The issue may be political, environmental, social, or personal, but time and time again we see, as Mr. Covey so eloquently put it, “One man's mission is another man's minutiae.”
So how do I know what’s truly important and what’s just important to me? How do we separate what’s important only to us from what should be universally important? Perhaps you’ve already guessed that it’s all a matter of perspective. So if you’ll bear with me, let’s take a look at how we look at things.
If one zooms way out, nothing seems “important.” Eventually the sun will explode or some other catastrophic event will destroy everything. It will destroy everyone we know, all life, and any record we were ever here. So if we take the really big-picture view, nothing is important. Nothing we currently worry about will matter in the truly long-term.
Conversely, if we choose to really zoom in and look at the small details, everything becomes immensely important. What to order from the restaurant menu will impact how much I enjoy my meal, so if I choose to focus my mind solely on my meal, this decision feels important.
The truth is, most things lie somewhere in between. Day-to-day, we aren’t looking at life from the macro perspective of everything’s eventual annihilation, and neither are we looking at every decision on the most miniscule level. We all get to decide what’s important to us. Furthermore, that answer can change. As we discussed earlier, what’s important to you now may not be important to you later.
I have found great power and relief in trying to accept other people not as I wish they would be, but as they are, faults and all. (I very much also try to accept myself as I am faults and all, but we’ll get more into that later). This means accepting what is and what is not important to others.
I do believe it is a truly loving act to make something that is important to another important to you. A parent taking a sincere interest in their kid’s interests is one of most loving and bonding acts possible. I also believe it is a truly loving act to accept people as they are, even if what is important to them is not important to you and vice versa.
Ask Yourself:
- Am I willing to ask myself what’s important to me? Can I respect the answer, regardless of what comes up?
- Can I respect that what is important to me may not be important to others?
- What used to be important to me but no longer is?
- Can I think of any examples of things that seem very important to someone else but not to me?
Next Letter: Sadness