Is Your Wife's Funeral Optional?

There is a morbid story that illustrates the necessity of prioritizing. A man once attended a Super Bowl and was seated toward the top of the stadium, resulting in poor visibility. After the game began, he noticed an empty seat near the fifty-yard line. He decided to see if he could procure that seat for the remainder of this significant occasion. He approaches the eyed location and asks the man seated next to the empty seat if he could sit there.
The man replied, "Actually, the seat belongs to me. I was supposed to come with my wife, but she died. This is the first Super Bowl we haven’t been to together since we got married in 1967."
The other man responded, "That’s very sad. But still, couldn’t you find anyone else to take the seat- a relative or close friend?”
To which the man admitted, "No, they’re all at the funeral.”

Obviously, this is an exaggerated example of priorities, but the truth remains the same: We know that we should do the important things first, but we often fail to do them first. The reason is that it is much easier to appease our selfish desires, performing those tasks which cause the least resistance. Nevertheless, if we want to be successful at life, business, and relationships, we must heed the advice of Johann Wolfgang, "Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least."

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