On time and priorities

[chanaleh]

I have developed a new metric: If you have to depend on guilt-tripping to pressure me into what should otherwise be a mutually beneficial transaction (join your group, attend your event, buy your product), then your system has bigger problems than my involvement will fix

Comments

[lillibet]

Amen! It can get hard when priorities are not shared--I frequently advise people replying to wedding invitations not to disclose what's more important to them than this wedding, because being told what's more important than you is not something people want to hear, ever, but even less so on their big day.

One nice thing about having a kid is that even child-free folk seem to respect that as a priority. "I can't, I have rehearsal," is also pretty good :)

I've had to really examine my priorities with regard to church. The number one reason for people to come to church is to find community. Since I am lucky enough to have community in spades, I often find myself at odds with the vibe. Yes, there is interesting and important stuff happening there and they could use just as much of my talents and time as I make available to them and it would be worthwhile and rewarding. But if I did that, I'd be shifting away from family and theatre and I'm not willing to do that. So I picked one thing--and it's a very visible thing--and I make fulfilling the demands of that position a priority and to everything else I say no, sometimes to people's deep confusion. "But it's just one meeting a month" they say. Ha!