2022: Focus On What Matters -By Ezinwanne Onwuka

It’s that time of the year again when we make bucket lists of ‘new year resolutions’ and set short term goals for the year. Oftentimes, these resolutions and goals are lofty and grand but impracticable. Reason being that we misplace priorities. By the end of the year, during our review, we realize we were chasing shadows because we neglected the things that matter.

What are the things that matter the most for you? Is it your health or is it material posessions that seem more important to you? Is it your family or is it your job? Is it your partner, your children or your friends?

What are the things that really matter to us a nation? As a leader, what really matters to you: the welfare of your people or your personal aggrandizement? Is it the money or is it the power?

Few months ago, a beautiful story which illustrates the importance of focusing on what matters was shared with me on WhatsApp. The story goes thus:

A philosophy professor stood before his class with some items on the table in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, about 2 inches in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He then asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “Yes.”

“Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your partner, your health, your children – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter – like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

The story contains a valuable message to us as individuals and as a nation. Suffice to say that we are where we are as a country today because our leaders have perpetually neglected the things that matter – security, education etc. They are busy with sand – fattening their bank accounts. This explains why they have little or no room to attend to matters that affect the general welfare of the populace.

With the 2023 general elections lurking around the corner, political parties and candidates will present mind-blowing manifestoes and make wonderful promises in a bid to appear more credible than the rival parties and candidates. I hope they tailor their programs and promises to what really matters and not just to have an edge over their rivalries.

On individual level, life shouldn’t be so complicated. A lot of times we allow less important things in our life to dictate our state of mind, disturb our peace and most importantly get in the way of things that really matter.

What we can do for ourselves is to get crystal clear on what we want out of life. That is to say, getting crystal clear on the things that matter to us. What matters are things that impact you. What matters are the things that are important to you, including what you want out of life and your personal values.

Here is Goethe’s advice to make the most of 2022, whether as an individual or as a nation: things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.

Therein lies the solution to the problems bedeviling us as a nation. Things go awry when we have misplaced priorities. The state of the nation is a good case study. Focusing on things that matter will set the country on a path of economic growth and recovery.

In addition, as an individual, whatever your path in life, whatever your new year resolutions and/or goals, however many struggles you may have, you can truly center yourself if you do just one thing: focus on what matters.

2022 should be a year to set our priority right.

Happy new year! Have a full, blissful and meaningful 2022.

Ezinwanne Onwuka, ezinwanne.dominion@gmail.com.