How to Set Priorities

Before we begin to contemplate the importance of Setting a Priority, it would be really great if you could take a look at the image for 2 minutes, since image portrays more than words.

So now, imagine a hypothetical situation wherein, one day you are babysitting your neighbor's newborn child, and rest of the family members are out for some important chores. You have been assigned the task of taking care of the baby.

Suddenly, the door bell rings and the baby also starts crying simultaneously. It's that minute instance where you have no doubts that there is none other than a sales representative at the door. Whom would you attend first? The answer is a must to understand the concept mentioned below.

Most of the answers will be the crying baby. The one, who does not actually belong to you, but is like your own family member, and more of a priority to you. But, one thing I would like to stress on is that, does the baby understand your love and care immediately, rewarding you for it! The answer, my friends, is 'NO'.

The child takes time, to understand your value or the care bestowed by you, right from birth. Then the child starts respecting you as he grows seeing your love and rewards you with all the possible necessities.

In short, some period is consumed for your value to be understood by the child, but in that process you never stop loving that kid and continue loving, caring and doing things for him. That's selfless love!

Well, for others who chose to attend the marketer at the door, here are some reasons I think you would've thought of...

1. Some people may think that it's better to attend the door, shoo off the marketer and then attend the baby, as that will take a short time and then the whole time can be spent attending the baby, or
2. Some people may deliberately choose to attend the door instead of the baby as they don't like crying babies or they hate to attend cranky children.

To be frank these are just reasons for not understanding your responsibilities or not being able to set your priorities 'respectively'. To be very specific, here are some explanations for the derived conclusion.

For the people who thought about the first point, one should have thought that it would have left the child choked up crying continuously, he could fall from the bed, he could swallow something that could prove injurious if attended late, etc. It would later be of no use crying over spilled milk, in case of some major damage is caused to the kid.

For people who thought of the second point, should always remember that someday you too were small and were cared by someone. If you think that it was your parents' responsibility, then this is also supposed to be your responsibility, isn't it? What if due to your parent's small ignorance there would be a mishap and you were handicapped or suffered all through your life. Would that be fine? The answer would be 'NO' again.

Now let me explain the relation between you and the crying baby, and a freshman (you) and his first new company. Just like the small growing newborn kid every company in this world is a growing organization. He (The Company) always wants love and affection in terms of quality work and loyalty from its caretaker (employees and the management).

Unless you work hard and set your roles (work) as the first priority, the company will never understand your worth. Your love and output will decide if you treat the company as your family or as a stranger.

One needs to treat the company as a family, to help it grow and flourish. Your hard work, love, care, affection and loyalty will never go futile. But, Yes, it always takes some time for the company to reward your talent and love you bestowed to help it grow.

Last but not the least, for the people who are thinking about who is the marketer... But before I disclose that, it would be nice if you could answer my next question (on a priority basis)! Has it ever happened, that a marketer outside your door has got something you would never get when you go to a mall? The answer is 'NO', isn't it?

So my friends the marketer outside the door is nothing other than some unofficial work that tends to take a toll over your priority list. You always have your friends calling or many other tasks like outings or parties, etc. which try to attract you and divert you from your responsibilities.

Whereas, if you change your priorities (or rather if you don't prioritize your priorities) you would tend to lose on your work and the quality deteriorates causing a loss to the company. Like the story mentioned above, this loss can be a short term damage or a long term damage. Thus affecting your growth as a member too.

Bottom line or the moral of the story being, one should never think about the immediate rewards when he joins the company, cause when the company grows, automatically will you and your rewards. Setting wrong priorities are one of the things that can hamper the same. Helping the company grow, will reward you in terms of your growth for sure!