Priorities and Conscious Choices

by Gregory Allen Butler

Over the last 11 days I had priorities that took me away from getting blog entries uploaded. We hired a friend of ours, a professional contractor, to come in from out of town to remodel our kitchen. And because it turned into a bigger project than expected (we discovered an old water leak from the back of the dishwasher), I had to assist him. His visit turned into seven long days of manual labor for both of us.

As soon as that was done, I had to begin construction of two websites which I was hired to do. And because I was late in getting started, I had to do two weeks worth of work in six days. By the end of that work, I was at the point of exhaustion.

In the process of all this work, my life got out of balance. But I was aware of it and it was a conscious choice. It’s one thing to neglect relationships, relaxation, and exercise for two weeks. It’s another to neglect them for a lifetime. Despite the temporary diversion, I still had my long-term direction.

Priorities are conscious choices. To not have a priority for what you want to accomplish in your day or in your life is a lack of structure. And that is fine, if indeed that is a conscious choice. But to wander through life with no awareness of what needs to be accomplished is aimlessness. And aimlessness gets you nowhere.

When you wake up in the morning and start the day, some things take priority over other things. Getting up takes a priority over staying in bed. Eating breakfast takes priority over fasting--usually.Taking a shower takes priority over staying dirty

So everyone knows how to make priorities. But do they bring consciousness into the prioritization process? Without consciousness, the right priorities can never take place. It’s like making a choice that’s behind one of three doors but you are not able to see what is behind the doors. That’s not making a priority. That’s guessing. And without consciousness, we are guessing.

Without consciousness, without that connection to source of being, it is not possible to know your purpose in living. Without consciousness, life is basically a series of reactions and a path of least resistance or ego gratification. Accomplishments happen because they took priority. Consciousness brings power, passion and enthusiasm into your efforts. Without consciousness, there is no power, passion or enthusiasm. There is only the ego and its claim of separateness, of standing apart.

Priorities born of consciousness build upon the truth of perception. Priorities that manifest without consciousness don’t. They are no more helpful than a map of a city printed 60 years ago. It leads to wrong turns and misdirection. The real aims and purpose of life elude you. This is one of the major misapplications of life’s energies. It is also one of the major dilemmas of societal life.

When we take a step back and look at the priorities of governments, which are supposed to express the will of the people, we see a tremendous misapplication of energy. Billions of dollars are being spent on weapons of mass destruction while millions of children go hungry and without the means for medical care. How much of a priority is improving life? Far behind, I think, of destroying life. We can blow up the world 100 times but we can’t feed homeless children three meals a day.

How is that type of priority even a possibility, yet alone a reality? It stems from a disconnect from our basic sense of humanity, of who we really are as a people. And this starts with the individual.

Within each of us is a tremendous energy – a power that can transform the planet. All that is needed is the time and attention to activate it and making a conscious priority to use it. And that comes from awareness, an awareness of our true nature as spiritual beings. Each of us has a light within that can illuminate a part of this darkened world -- a world darkened by a humanity out of touch with its purpose in life.

How do we do this? By making it a priority. The Catholic and Buddhist mystic Thomas Merton was once asked how he became such a saintly person? He said it was by making that his priority.
If the number one priority of each day in your life is to become a little more conscious, then consciousness will do what it can to assist you in finding itself. It is longing for you as much as you are longing for it.