Priority. That’s a word that gets used a lot these days. We all have our “priorities” – often that’s our “to do” list. I hadn’t really thought about it this way before, but it’s not a bad idea to just keep “love” on our permanent “to do” list. So for starters, let’s all agree:
We will make love our priority
We’ve come to think of “priority” as being that which is most important. You can be a priority customer and get priority service, you can send things priority mail, you can go to a hotel or an airport and get priority check-in with your priority status. The other day I checked in for a flight on United Airlines. I was on the priority upgrade standby list for first class. Ha, if a couple people don’t show up I’ll be flying across the country in a big comfy leather seat with plenty of legroom. I felt important, it’s an exclusive club – only 24 seats in first class. I looked up at the board… there I was, on the priority upgrade standby list… number 58. Really? So like everyone in first class had to not show up… twice. I thought priority meant important?
The origin of the word is “prior”. Which doesn’t make you think “important”. It means before; comes first. The definition of priority is a state of being earlier in time. It’s not about importance, but about the order of things – what must we take care of first, before we move to the next thing. Because that next thing won’t be as good if we don’t. So in that sense, let’s all agree:
We will make love our priority
Every September the leaders of my company get together for 2.5 days up in Maine to discuss, devise, and debate the strategic plans of the company. There’s about 80 of us, so a big group with lots of different perspectives on business and life. And super smart people. Harvard grads, physicians, former CEOs, lots of MBAs. (I’m actually not sure how I get invited.) At the start of the meeting we discuss the ground rules for our time together, and every year the one that gets raised almost immediately is to have unconditional positive regard for each other. Unconditional positive regard. Love, you might say. Love and respect.
Because even this group of super-smart geeky know-it-alls realizes that the power of knowledge is limited when it is not founded on love and respect. Listen to understand, speak to be understood, and together we succeed. That’s what can happen when we agree that:
We will make love our priority
Every day we live we make decisions. Life decisions. Business decisions. Relationship decisions. Money decisions. Child-raising decisions. Tough decisions. We rely on the knowledge we’ve gained through our living and our learning. If we make love our priority, if we are living with care and conviction, if we know and respect and trust in God and in one another, the decisions we make will be stronger. So with that in mind, let’s agree:
We will make love our priority
