The next aspect of our lies I would like to talk to you about reclaiming is our priorities. Do you know what your priorities are? Usually we think we know what our priorities are, but if we look at our schedules, if we look at what we spend our time and money on, sometimes they don't align with our priorities. And sometimes over time, our priorities begin to shift or they begin to slide, they shift. That's intentional. They slide. That's unintentional. We just start slipping away from what matters most to us from what we know to be most important in life. If you don't feel like you're clear about your priorities, I'd really encourage you to take 10 or 15 minutes after the event tonight and, and sit down and, and make a list of your priorities.
People always ask me, well, how many, you know, I would say not less than three, not more than seven. Somewhere between three and seven. Sit down, write down your priorities. First step, just get 'em down on paper, second step, then begin to prioritize 'em, then, then begin to put them in order. Uh, if we are not clear about our priorities, it's impossible to reclaim our priorities. And so the very first step is to get very clear about what our priorities are in the book. You know, we put so many great quotes, um, to inspire you to, to keep you focused and, and to stir your imagination around these topics. Any area of priorities. There's, there's none better than Jesus'. Quote, seek first the kingdom of God, and all these other things will be given to you. In addition, it's clear, right? It's that it's that singular priority.
Seek first the kingdom of God. Stephen Covey famous quote, most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important. We tend to know the difference between what's urgent and what's important. But very often we, we like the idea of ticking things off our to-do lists. And so we focus on getting things done rather than getting the right things done or the most important things done. And so everything can seem urgent in a world where we don't know what matters most everything can seem urgent. In a world where we don't know what our priorities are, the most important skill when it comes to reclaiming our priorities is getting really, really good at saying no. Really, really good at saying no. Warren Buffet said The difference between successful people and really, really successful people is that really, really successful people say no to almost everything.
It's a, it's a difficult thing to do. We struggle with it. All of us, we struggle with saying no. But the reality is there's so many possibilities in this world. There's so many opportunities in this world. Life presents so many opportunities and so many possibilities to you. What percentage do you get to say yes to? 50%. Absolutely not 20%, no, 10%, no. 1%, no. The reality is there's so many possibilities in your life, so many opportunities in your life, you get to say yes to less than 1% of 1% of those possibilities, of those opportunities. And that is why it is critically important to develop the skill of saying no. It's also critically important that we understand how powerful our choices are. If you only get to say, say yes to 1% of 1% of the possibilities in your life, how important is what you say yes to?
And so, if we're going to say yes to the right things, we need clarity, we need personal clarity. We need clarity around what matters most, what matters least we need clarity about what are our priorities? What are those 3, 5, 7 things that are most important in your life so that when we make a decision, we could call to mind, okay, these are our priorities. If these are really my priorities, what decision would I make in this situation? And so reclaiming, reclaiming our priorities is about learning to say no to almost everything. And saying yes to only the most important things that align with our priorities, align with the life we want to live, align with the person we believe God has created us to become.
Matthew Kelly
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