The other day I was expressing some personal frustration on Facebook (where else?) about some further lockdown here in Spain. After a few consecutive prolongations of the initial “estado de alarma” (2 weeks each), the Government now wants a 5 weeks prolongation. And this in the context of very low epidemic numbers. My stance was that this was a political move, not a medical supported one and it wasn’t in the best interest of people.
As expected, my post sparked a little bit of conversation. This pandemic polarized people into very well delimited camps, each with a very articulate message. As I was getting ready to plunge into the comments swamp, something stopped me.
I looked at the comments, I looked outside the window and I remembered about the post I published the other day, about a 230 days writing challenge.
And then this question came into my mind: “What’s important?”
You Can Do Anything, But Not Everything
As you acquire more skills, as you educate your will more and as you get more accustomed to reaching your goals, something funny will happen: you’ll suddenly be able to do more stuff. It sounds funny, because it’s true (as Sheldon would put it). The better we get at doing things, the more we can do.
And at some point you’ll realize something almost depressing: just because you can do more, it doesn’t mean you’re always doing the right thing.
Just because you can speak 4 languages, it doesn’t mean you will find the right words to say when your closest ones need some encouragement. Just because you know how to code in 7 frameworks, it doesn’t mean you’ll build something that other people really need. And just because you can run a a marathon, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should run one.
Some things are more important in your life than others. It’s called “priorities”. And based on these “priorities” we came to enjoy or hate our lives. These “priorities” are making the difference between abundance and scarcity, between fulfilling and unfulfilling relationships, between happiness and misery. Yes, even between happiness and misery, as both are choices. Harder than other choices, of course, but, as I said: “priorities”.
When the question “What’s important?” came into my mind earlier, the answer was: this article. I chose this as a priority over indulging in some ventilating Facebook comments, because I genuinely think this is more important. It will be here long after this pandemic will be over. It will catch the attention of people and, if they will stop just for a second to ponder what’s important for them in the next 10-20 minutes, then my job here is done.
