Ought-Opsy
Last month, I got to visit a friend and relative who's a county coroner. (Lesson learned: never eat BBQ with an engaging story-telling coroner.) I saw more than my fair share of dead bodies over the weekend, most of which were still intact. However, a coroner's job is take bodies apart so they can find out why they died. I saw one such body, dissected on the table like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. What was more disturbing than the scene was the smell. Dead, taken-part bodies stink. Regardless, it was a highly educational weekend in many ways.
To take something else apart, we in Iowa recently held our election primaries. As I predicted many months ago (in spite of the fact that our current governor has lost a lot of political capital from both parties), Bob Vander Plaats could have saved himself a lot of time and effort by not even entering the race. He lost soundly to 4-term-Governor-turned-candidate, Terry Branstad. Then he was shot down again at the convention when he tried to challenge the bid for Lieutenant Governor. But what has amazed me is the reaction of his followers. The social conservatives have spent so much energy over the past few months painting Branstad as a liberal-lover or a RINO (Republican In Name Only) because they claim he ignores their desires.
I recently debated this point with a far-right-conservative, and I tried to impress upon him that social issues were still important... just NOT AS important as economic issues at the moment. Once the party got the economy back on track, then other issues may come to the forefront. It's called PRIORITIES. No candidate can take on everything and do it successfully (just ask Obama). Suffice it to say, he didn't believe me. It was a very black-and-white mentality of all-or-nothing, my-way-or-the-highway with him. (To be fair, I see the same behavior in the far left too... that's why I only talk politics with logical moderates and independents... way more productive and far less annoying.)
But I didn't write this post to bash the political players. In seeking to seize the accomplishment, one must learn to prioritize. What task needs my attention today? What relationship should I focus on? Which project should I do first? What OUGHT you do first? then second? then third? What OUGHT your focus be? What OUGHT to be your priorities? When you learn to dissect what you OUGHT to do, then you get through things a lot faster.
To avoid prioritizing, whether in politics or in life or in business, means your accomplishment will die a questionable death, and somebody will end up dissecting it.