Priority vs Priorities

When you think about your top priorities—about the things that are most important to you—how many things come to mind?

In this day and age where we want to have it all, the temptation is to make everything a priority. But having too many priorities only undermines our ability to focus on the ones that are most important.

In his book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown notes that the word priority came into our language in the 1400s, and for most of its history it was used in the singular. It referred to the first thing. Only in the last century have we begun to pluralize it, speaking of priorities—many first things. Which is fine. But it’s helpful to remember that the more priorities we have, the less the term begins to mean. If everything’s most important, then nothing is most important.

So, in your life, you work, your current situation, what’s the priority? Not just the ten things that are pretty important, but the one thing that’s supremely important.