Maybe It’s Time To Decide What’s the Most Important Thing

The most important thing is the priority.

It is what you cannot overlook.

It is what you cannot neglect.

It is what you should attend to immediately.

It is what you need to do first.

It is the elephant in the room.

Just say you want to get a certain kind of job.

You lack the most important skill required for that job.

The most important thing is then for you to acquire the skill for that job.

You can acquire the skill through education, or you can acquire the skill through apprenticeship.

You can acquire the skill through formal learning, or you can acquire the skill through self-teaching.

But acquire the skill you must.

Until you have acquired the skill, you have an unconquerable obstacle.

Just say you want to succeed in sales.

Succeeding will mean you have to identify customers who have the best potential, talk to them about your product, and persuade them to buy your product.

The most important thing then for you, is to identify as many high potential customers as possible, and talk to them.

Just say you are in sales, and you have been knocking on the doors of high potential customers, but your success rate in closing deals is low.

The most important thing then is for you to work on your sales pitch, or on the areas of your communication that are obstructing the sales close.

If you don’t work on your sales pitch, and the areas of your communication that are obstructing the sales close, you will continue to have a poor sales success rate.

Identifying the most important thing is important in any area of your life.

Let’s look at some more examples.

Let’s say you need to find work.

But the reason you lost your previous job is a substance abuse problem.

The most important thing for you then is to overcome your substance abuse problem.

Without overcoming your substance abuse problem, you will continue to lose jobs; you may blow some really cool and miraculous opportunities.

Let’s look at some more examples.

Let’s say you want to buy your first house.

Your bank or lender says you need a 20% down payment, plus a job and income history of at least 2 years, and a good credit history.

The most important thing for you then is to save towards the down payment, to acquire a job and income history of at least 2 years, and to build your credit score.

Without that, you cannot buy your first house.

Let’s look at another example.

Let’s say, for whatever reason, you have a non-existent or poor relationship with your children or family.

You want to improve your relationship with your children and family.

The most important thing for you then is to identify the reason for your poor or non-existent relationship with your children and family, and address that problem. You have to do that before you do anything else.

Your relationship will continue to be poor or non-existent, until you address the most important thing.

Other things will not matter, will not have lasting effect, until the most important thing is addressed and solved.

Let’s keep going and look at one final example.

Let’s say you are highly skilled, highly experienced manager, and you are capable of making a huge contribution to any company who hires you.

But you lack emotional control, so you have a poor reputation as a manager, and nobody wants to work for you.

The most important thing then is for you to work on your emotional control.

If you don’t, you will keep losing good reports, and continue to have a poor management record.

There is nothing new in what I am saying.  Everything I have said has been said before.  The only thing new is you deciding to address the most important thing, and to address the most important thing as soon as possible.

Your decision may come after a stretch of failures and unproductive behaviors.

It doesn't matter, because it is never too late.

However big the challenge before you, its never too late to address it, taking it step by step.

Start today by tackling the most important thing.

Maybe it’s time.

So where do you begin?

If your issue is emotional control, start here.

As always, thanks for sharing my Journey to Wisdom, Meaning and a Better Life,  and have a great day and week….M ……a Pearl Seeker like you.  Thanks to Ajay for his compliments on my last post, and thanks to the rest of you for your likes, pins, shares, tweets and votes…..much appreciated.

P.S.  This post was inspired by Howard Marks, founder of Oaktree Capital Management , and author of the book The Most Important Thing.  If you are an investor, and haven't read any of Howard Marks' famous "memos", they are well worth your time. Howard Marks' memos go all the way back to 1990, and you can read his thoughts on the important events of 1998 (LTCM) 2000 (Irrational Exuberance), 2001 (9/11), 2008 (Market Crash), 2016,(Elections) all the way to 2017.

Resources:

Getting a loan straight after college for those who are interested