Getting Your Priorities Straight

And I think also you need to have a vision, a clear vision, not just a dream.

Definitely.

No dreamers just usually dream on, but people that have a clear vision, they think about how to achieve that vision. They set little goals to achieve that, they make plans to do it, and they put some priorities in their lives.

Ladies and gents, welcome to Voices of Life, the podcast with topics related to the apostolic faith in the 21st century. Let's talk about what interests you here on Voices of Life.

Praise the Lord and welcome back to Voices of Life. We are so grateful that you chose to tune in again and be with us today. Today we would like to talk about priorities. Maybe you've heard somebody tell you or somebody else, you need to have priorities in your life. And today we'd like to talk about how important our priorities, do we really need them? How many do we need them? And a lot of other questions we have here that we would like to discuss. And hopefully we inspire you with this episode. First of all, I would

like to ask my dear podcast friends and experts sitting here on the tables today without our dear friend Sebastian, but I'm sure we have a lot of competence here sitting on the table. So how is it in your life when it comes to priorities?

Priorities are important from my point of view, but It varies how much and how intense I use them. Depends on what's happening right now, how much is really to do there. It's just right now, just focusing on tasks to prioritize tasks that you have to do. So when it gets too much, I like to do just a list and put a prioritization on it in some kind of way, just to have an order and organization to have an overview. Okay, what, what needs to be done first? Where, where do I start? Where do I end as

well? And so just to know what needs to be done, when it needs to be done. And that just gives me security that while I'm on a project or doing something that I don't think about 50 other things or have to do this and finish that and do this and do that. And that just not confuses me. What is that word in English? Ablenken. Distract. Thank you. I'm sorry listeners. It just distracts me from what I actually have to do and keeps my mind so busy that I can't focus on what I need to do right

now.

Having priorities gives you kind of a structure in my week or in my month either way because I have different tasks like you just said like doing the laundry that's like I put it in a day like a Saturday.

Is that your favorite task by the way?

Doing laundry. Yes. I actually enjoy it a little bit. Yeah. Well. Yeah, because I want my stuff clean of course. So that's why you have to. Yeah. So yeah, it's clean. It's clean. Well, it's not as clean as it should be, but it's probably clean. So yeah, so it gives me a structure to really go day by day because if I don't have that structure, my life is going to be chaotic because I'm going to do, wake up in the morning, do whatever I have to do, blah, blah, blah. And after what I've done, there's nothing

really where I just plan to do it. So that's why I put priorities in my life.

You did things, but you got nothing done.

Yeah, good. Yeah, you do something, but nothing really happened. Yeah, You're busy

with nothing. Yeah, exactly.

And you just...

Yeah, the same for me. I do have to prioritize my task during the day, week, month, of course, otherwise it's going to end up in a mess. And sometimes there are days, hopefully not consecutive days, but sometimes there are days where I'm just, you know, I have no passion, I'm tired, I have no energy left and I'm not doing my tasks and I'm not making sure that I stick to my priorities. And then at the end of the day, I usually find out, well, you didn't do anything productive today. And the problem is now I have

to do a lot more the following day, because I just dropped so many tasks that I should have done. So the question is, and I think we most likely answered it already, but I just will ask you guys again. So do you think it is, if it's possible for somebody just to live life without any priorities?

Well, no, that's not, I think it's not possible because just, how can you say, just living into life is, I don't got the words for it.

I think yeah I think you can live without priorities but you still will have priorities in some kind of way. Maybe you think you don't have priorities, but you will prioritize stuff just because of outside influences in 1 way or the other. For example, when you're a child, you get it from the outside. When you're working, you get priorities put upon you. If you want to earn money, if you want to eat or have food or have an apartment, you will have to prioritize, okay, I have to work in some kind of way or get money

in some kind of way. Maybe not work, you know, there are other ways to get money, but usually you work. And so that will automatically become a priority. So maybe you are not doing it willingly and consciously, that's the word consciously, but it will happen just by itself that you will have priorities in your life. So no, you can't

live without priorities then because I mean, or no. Yeah, really. Well, we both, right?

Maybe I'm a little prejudiced, but when I was thinking about this question, I was thinking about people like hippies just living in the day, basically trying to do nothing or other people. I don't know a name for them that just don't work, don't do anything, they just, you know, do whatever they like and just, you know, flow and,

and, you know,

what was that?

I just had

to explain to you later.

And that's, those kinds of people just came into my mind. But I'm with you. I think you cannot live without priorities. You will have priorities. For those people, their priorities is not to have any priorities. So it is some kind of a priority in their life. And so I think to have a successful life, there needs to be some priorities. And we have to structure our task and things that we have to do to reach our goals according to priorities, you know, number 1 and so on. So what do you think is the basis or what

are the values that we form our priorities to?

I think it was an important point what you mentioned that goals are very important in prioritizing stuff that you need to do or in prioritizing your life. For example, if you want to grow in a certain area, for example, you want to learn to play a musical instrument, then your priorities are different because, okay, you will spend more time in practicing that instrument, studying, learning how to get better in it instead of somebody else who will look at you and like why are you investing all that time to that instrument if they don't want to learn

it so it depends on what what your goals are where you want to go to

and I think also you need to have a vision a clear vision not just a dream

definitely

no dreamers they just usually dream on but people that have a clear vision, they think about how to achieve that vision. They set little goals to achieve that. They make plans to do it and they put some priorities in their lives to do that. Like you said, if my vision is to be a successful piano player, I want to play in the big concert halls somewhere, symphony, orchestra or whatever, then I need to practice like crazy and starting to practice when I'm about 30 years old, I don't think you will ever get to that level that

is necessary to do that. So you have to have a passion for it, a vision for it when you are young in this case and then start working on it. And that's the same for people that are in sports.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, we, yeah, I'm, I'm a kind of sports guy and you, you see it in also in interviews from the different athletes when they talk about their goals and vision and what they have to do and what prioritized to get to that goal, to that vision. They talk about their training camps have to go to wake up in a certain time, to go to bed in a certain time, to eat different foods that helps them with their strength and what they're preventing themselves to get injured. Those are all priorities that I have to

take as well to get to that goal or to that world championship, whatever it is, to get to that point. So, yeah.

And also what I always find fascinating is when they're sick or injured in that case, it's not that they're just at home doing nothing, but they even train other body parts that are also important and as soon as they can use that injured body part in some kind of way, they already start again. I mean, other people, you know, you're sick, you're at home, you do nothing, you're like, okay, well, whatever, easy. But they just, they have that goal in focus and they say, okay, well, I'm injured now, but I can do other things next to

it.

Yeah. And like you said, there are some things they do eat and there are also things they don't eat or drink, for example, alcohol and so on. But another thing is when it comes to those athletes, I think they also have friends that are not athletes. They have of course friends that are athletes as well. They understand their lifestyles, but they also have other friends that are not that much into sports, I think. And they like to party, have fun and so on. And then the guy or the girl has to decide not to join them

because priority is I have to train and to be to take part in the big competition or tournament. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to do that.

Yeah, there's 1 guy who's a famous football soccer player, you do country you are, you understand what it is, who when he was younger and he was in the academy and he played soccer there, The different players told stories how he, when they went to bed at night or did, like you said, did their parties or anything, he went to the gym and trained and did all this stuff. And it was even that so much that even coaches and trainers had to go to him, had to stop him to tell him, you're doing too much. You

have to also calm down a little bit, go out with friends you need to have a life. And he's like, no, I have this dream that I want to get. And so now he's 1 of the best known ever players in history. So I mean,

is that guy from Portugal?

Yeah, because I don't know, I don't know if I want to say that, but Cristiano Ronaldo, he's 1 of them. Yeah. And I mean, also

shout out.

Yes, give us a like.

Davi crazy, Davi really crazy.

And if you'd like to support our church,

hey, give me a call. Davy nuts. Right at the end. We are ready. Lord, thank you. But yeah, and he's like, like I said, he's like 1 of the most known soccer players that ever lived, arguably. So yeah, if you really, like you said, make the choice to go after your priorities, you can be successful in what you want to do.

And Paul also, He compared the Christian walk to a race. He said, okay, you have to take care of your body. I don't know the real English word for it now, but you have to just... Endure. Yeah, yeah. Endure the race and do what you need to do in order to finish the race, because it's not just a sprint. It's not 1 day, you're high and all your spiritual, like on Sundays, you know, you're high and you're praising and you're praying and everything is fine. And on Monday, just dead, falling on the ground. Yeah. Over and

then, oh, finally, it's Sunday again. But it's a daily walk. It's a daily race that we're racing.

Yeah. And interesting is if people have that kind of vision and passion for it, like we said, it becomes a priority in their lives. And those athletes that train, some of them really don't mind to do some extra training. Everybody else is going home, the coach is gone and they are still training. I heard that story also about, I think it was Michael Jordan, well, I'm old.

That's basketball for those who don't know.

Yes, right. Chicago Bulls. And this guy trained also a lot of hours when there was nobody around. And he worked on his skills.

Yeah, yeah. Even, yeah, sorry. I mean, not even, that's another sport, that's American football. I saw a documentary about that as well. And there was, sound like I feel like that, there was, what they do is, as well, they don't only train on the field or in the gym, they also train their, how you can say, their tactical use. So what they do is they get up early in the morning, some players even from 5 to 6 a.m. They go to wherever they have their video analysts there and they sit there for 2 hours maybe and

they watch their tactical plays or the tactical plays of the opponents and they they make notes and everything so they're really just they're prepared and that's preparing for the next week or for the for 2 weeks or depends when the next game is. And so it's not only what they do on the field, it's also what they do off the field that makes them great, you could say in their sports.

And I think they also learn to not just train the body, but also train their mind.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

Preparing mentally for whatever they have to do.

Yeah. Yeah. So that another Christian peril.

Is it? Yeah. I mean, there are other people, if you want to like get somewhere, do something, you also need to prepare and You can't just be like, oh, well, whatever. I just do what I want to do and then expect, oh, well, now I'm going to be a teacher or going to be a worship leader or whatever by not investing anything into it. So it's the same in whatever. If you want to achieve something in sports, you need to invest. But also, if you want to... It's always strange to say achieve in a Christian way,

but like to get something, to do a ministry, to do something, you have to invest and not be like, oh, ministry, oh, it just flies to me. Just, oh, what? Oh, now I'm a preacher? Oh, well, now I can start preparing, but you're preparing beforehand and getting ready, studying, getting a habit of Bible reading or praying because when the time then comes and then start building it, it's much harder or even not possible anymore.

Yeah. And I think, you know, a lot of us people, we get our talents from God, but having a talent without discipline is just wasted. And I think a guy that is less talented than somebody else, if he puts in the discipline, the work, and he has some priorities to do so, he will eventually outperform the other 1 that is just talented, but just lazy. Yeah, definitely. And I also believe that God will anoint the 1 that is putting the work into it. Yes. It's really behind it, and I think God blesses preparation. Definitely. And there

won't be any blessing of a spoiled, talented person in the church that is not willing to put in the work.

Yeah, I mean, you have the parable of the talents, what Jesus told to the disciples and to the masters. He said, Well, 1 has 10 talents and 5 and 1, or 10, 2, 1, something like that. You can read it in the Bible, what the exact numbers are. But the core point of the story is that whatever you got from God, that's what you ought to use. So it doesn't matter if you have 10 talents, 10 abilities, and you're just such a talent, you can do anything. I mean, there are people, for example, in church, they

can play anything. They can play bass and guitar and they can sing and do this and they do everything. Like crazy. And others are like, oh, well, I just have 1 talent, maybe. Maybe I can watch kids very good. I can tell stories. I'm an amazing storyteller, something like that. And they're like, oh, maybe I can use that in the kingdom. Maybe I'm just not as talented as that person, so I just don't do anything. But that's not what we ought to do. But whatever we got from God, that's what we ought to put to use

and prioritize to use. Because if we have that talent, maybe it's God pushing us or nudging us in that direction, like, hey, maybe that's nothing for you. Maybe this ministry is nothing for, but I have something else for you. And that ought to be your priority, not whining about, oh, I can't be like that person, but no, you can be yourself.

Yeah, definitely.

So the priority could be, I just follow the will of God. His will in my life, for me personally, my personal life. And that might be so different from others. You may have different interests as well than your main talent, But then you have to put in some priorities and stop some things just to focus on the will of God, basically, on the thing that God told you to do. In my case, I am interested in a lot of things, And I would like to learn and study a lot of things. And my wife says you're

crazy. She's probably right. I am. But sometimes I really have to stop myself and say, well, there's another priority. I do have different responsibilities. And sometimes our responsibilities dictate our priorities as well. So we can be distracted so easily, and then we are not fulfilling the purpose that God has for us. And I think it was Churchill that says, you know, if you turn around at every barking dog and you throw stones at him, you won't get ahead. Yeah, wow. So there are so many distractions that the world offers or even the devil sometimes springs along.

And that's why we have to have priorities and focus on the things that are more important. And I think... Do you want to add something?

Well, more likely. I mean, I can really attest to that because you probably heard, I'm very interested in sports. And so I really look a lot of sports videos and highlights of different sports events and stuff like that. And when I got back into the ministry more and more, I realized that those sports things are distracting me from other things that I should do for church or for my ministries in the church. So even though it's interesting, it's also not a sin, but it was a distraction that came and attacked me more likely, and I had

to cut it off from my life or do less of it in my life that I can do the things that are important and prioritize the things that are important, like reading my Bible, pray, or study for something that I want to teach on a Friday, or even for this podcast, maybe. So, that's a thing where I'm actually still battling with to really find a priority to do these things and leave the things aside that are distracting me. So yeah, I just wanted to attest to

that. It is said of a president called Eisenhower, we don't know if it's 100% sure, but it is said he thought about it, you know, how to put your priorities and he had some interesting words you also said, you know, some things are important, some things are less important and so on. So I would like to turn over the mic to our Eisenhower expert right now, at least when it comes to this thing here.

Yeah, so he put up a matrix and you can find that on the internet, just put in Eisenhower Matrix and you can find it as well. There are even some colored and we're using that right now because it's just pretty and it just,

yeah, it just,

yeah, it's, it spoke to me. So you have their important tasks and urgent tasks And you can call them a task. That's how he did it. And those are urgent and important. So they need to be done right now. They need to be finished right now because they're important and they're urgent. So better do them now. And important about that is always put that matrix into what you want to achieve or the goal you follow. So it depends on, okay, what goal do you look for if it's important and urgent or maybe what is B, less

urgent but important. And those are the things that you often miss them because you just don't see them. They are important, but they're so far away, oh, I can do them in a week or 3 weeks, but when you don't schedule them, they will become urgent and important and just overrule you sometimes.

The same things in our church. We plan our whole year with activities and things and programs and whatever we would like to do. And they are not urgent right now in January. But if we don't schedule them, and if we don't schedule when we start working on that project or the thing that we want to do, then they will become very urgent and very important if we don't do that.

How many times do we stumble on that? Oh, mercy.

Yeah, it's

just Easter. And all of a sudden it's Christmas. Yeah, exactly. Nobody expected it, right?

Yeah, that's crazy.

All of a sudden it's a week. Like,

wait, where did that 7 days

go? Exactly. So you have those things and then you also have the C tasks. They are less important, but urgent. So they need to be done, but for your goal, for what you want to achieve, they're just not important. And the suggestion is that you seek to delegate those things when you're in a professional context now, or maybe even a church context. They are urgent, but they are not that important for yourself to do and to finish. So find somebody to delegate them to, to make yourself free for the A and B tasks.

So how does delegation work for you guys?

Wonderful. Always perfect.

Oh yeah. That's a struggle. I have stories about that.

If you want to share 1.

Okay, let me share 1. As most of you know, me and my wife, we organize the events or different camps and stuff like that.

They do the best sandwiches in town.

Yeah, in case you don't know yet.

Oh, you forgot because it's in our first episode. Listen to it if you haven't.

We're alright. We're doing it. We're alright. So the thing is, we had our summer camp, I think it was summer camp 2 years ago? Yeah, I think 2 years ago we had a summer camp. Yeah, here in our church, that was an awesome idea, but yeah, we don't gonna talk about it. So yeah, So we had our summer camp here in our church. And let me say it this way. We wanted to delegate and we want to have built teams and send the people out and do this stuff. But at the end of the day, it

was me and my wife and 2 or 3 others who actually did the whole event job and the organizing of foods and everything. And let me tell you this, how many people was it? 160, 170, somewhere like that?

Yeah, a lot of

them. Yeah, if you want to keep these bellies full, It's hard with 3 or 5 people. It's Pentecostal bellies. Exactly, Pentecostal. Oh yeah, forgot about that.

There are some of them, they are bigger sizes like

me, for example. Yeah, so what we did, we didn't really delegate as we should have. And so we did it by ourselves more likely. And because we did so much, also in the time when we had sessions, we missed the sessions for our young adults. Thank God we had 2, I forgot their names, but we had 2 guests who actually did it very well with the young adults. What were the names again?

Oh, you want to call names now?

I wanted to call out because it was actually a good thing, but yeah, now I forgot the name. So, but yeah, thank God we had these 2 people who actually really organized it very well because we had no time for the young adults to really organize a program for them because we're so busy with the event and with the with the food and everything and that's that was a big big learning process for us or a learning point for us to really build teams, build or get enough people into those teams to really to say you

do this, you do that and please do this and that and that time and then not that you can set your feet on the table and just chill out, but you have always your eye on it and can check if things are done. And so now you could just focus on other things. And that was a big, big learning point for us. So yeah, that was difficult.

Yeah, I think the problem sometimes is when you delegate, you have to communicate very clearly. I would say you have to actually over-communicate sometimes. And another thing is they may not share the same passion or same vision that you have for the event or for the thing. And for them, it's just a task or a little job that they have to do. And that's it. And I remember that's just 1 little thing. Years ago in our church, we printed out monthly newsletters. Maybe you guys remember them. And they were like a trifold

brochure. Yeah.

Oh yeah. In those we had a little sermon in it. Then we had the dates, what's going on in that month and so on. And so what we did is we printed it out ourselves, make copies of it, and then we had to fold them because they were trifolds. And so I thought, well, it's clever to have somebody else helping me doing it, Because if you have 100 and 150 pages and you have to fold them, it takes a while. And if you have somebody else that wants to help, it's faster. So there was a person

that wanted to help. I said, well, awesome, here. And I said, well, let's do it this way. And then I started and he started and he, ah, it killed me. You know, he did not do it right. He just did it somehow. It was not, you know, exactly. Yeah. And just for our listeners, I am very, very German.

Amen.

And I think only the Japanese people are worse than me, I guess, when it comes to accuracy and stuff like that. So this almost killed me and I had to explain it to him again, but he just didn't feel it. Let's put it this way. And so I said, well, thank you so much. There's something else to do.

Yeah, but sometimes we have to accept that as well, if we delegate that people have a different vision to different tasks. Or no vision at all. Yeah, or no vision at all. And Like you said, sometimes you just have to over communicate and probably explain it again and again and again. And if that doesn't work, like you did, send them to another job or let them do

something else. Send them home.

Yeah, another job. And you also need to trust. I think that's also, it's a hard part for me to trust and entrust another person with that task and just not be all in their business then, how they're doing it and what they're doing. And, oh, here, give me feedback, where are you right now? But just really trusting, okay, hey, I give that to you and I trust that it will be done and just get it out of my mind as well. Because otherwise I'm on that task and I'm distracted again thinking about, are they doing it

now? Are they doing it right? Or I hope they're thinking about this. And so I'm so busy with that, that I could do it myself and it would be the same thing because I'm so into it still.

Yeah, and empower them to do the task

that is delegated to them

as well. You may have to put them, let's say, in a little framework and tell them, well, here are the limits, but within those limits, do whatever you think it's necessary to do. And we don't wanna micromanage everything. All right, so back to Eisenhower. Exactly, To finish the matrix,

we have the last of the 4 is less urgent and less important. And I like how the matrix puts it there. Delete. So these are just things you don't need. They don't get you anywhere. They don't help you with anything. And a good example we have there, it's rough, it's maybe will hurt some feelings. But it's it's Netflix. So it's just watching and watching. I mean, I think binge watching, is it an English term? It is, right? It's not just a Germanized English.

Well, the CEO of Netflix won't like this episode, but you're right. Yeah.

We're sorry. You can still

support us.

All right. If you listen to this.

10% is okay.

Yeah, more than okay probably.

But that's just things that they won't get you anywhere. They just maybe they get you busy though. They fill your time. They suck your time, but they won't get you anywhere. They won't get you further in life. They won't enhance your skills in any way. It's just you're watching and it is for entertainment. So personally, if you say, well, okay, I don't spend hours and hours and hours in that D, It's okay, because it's all right to sometimes just relax. And that's also something I think that you have to prioritize, to have time off. I mean,

even, it's always fun to say God rested, but even he put in a rest day. Of course not for himself. He's almighty. He didn't need to rest in any way. But even there he was an example for us to say, Hey, take it down sometimes. You don't have to have B all over A and all over B and do everything and schedule everything and have it all together. But just sometimes take a step back, relax and just get your head free again. Do something that just entertains you or helps you. Of course, let it not be

sinful. I think that's self-explanatory, but yeah, if it's not sinful and just it's entertainment, it's alright to sometimes be in that area but don't just spend all your time there.

Yeah, so also a lot of successful people that are not in the faith that are just, you know, creating a business or whatever, there's a lot of people that don't watch any kind of shows or TV or so, because they try to use their time as good as possible. Maybe every once in a while when they are on vacation or so, they may read. Some people that are listening, they go like this, reading. It's enough that I have to read my Bible.

They just lost 50.

We just lost a lot of people. And No, no, no, no, we are just mean, not our audience. Our audience are avid readers, I suppose. But, or sometimes they may watch a movie or whatever, those successful people, But like you said, they are not spending the whole days and weeks and just being entertained. You know, some people are that way. They have a job like a 9 to 5 job. And then when they are done, they go home, the only thing they do is get something to drink and eat and then they just sit in front

of the TV set or just on the computer and watch movies whatever and that's it. Just 1 show after the other and they do it pretty much every day. Well then there's no wonder why they are not getting so further ahead you know in their lives.

Yeah I once had a picture taken it was it was not a statistics but it was something I prepared for a lesson, where it was about time and how to use your time. And I can't find it right now, but it was about favorite anime shows. I mean, we all, of course, nobody, we may, you may not know those shows. I didn't most of them. I'm like, what is that? But just to have an example. Yeah. But there were shows and they said that it takes 968 hours to watch all the episodes.

Oh my God. That's a lot. Yeah.

That. And I mean, those episodes, what, they're like 20 minutes long. So it's, it's so much time that is, that is used there. And there were others. I mean, there was 500 and, and 200. And A sad thing is some people, they actually watch that through. And sometimes they're like, oh, we take a weekend now and we just start watching and see how far we get. And this is, oh, there, I found it. Here 394 hours and 48 minutes. I like how accurate they are. And 288 hours. It's crazy how much time can be spent there.

So just be careful how you spend your time. Because like Justin also said, when you don't prioritize, when you don't do the things that you have for done for today, they will sooner or later have to be done another day and another day and another day. Then your days become so full that you have everything is priority A then and then you have no chance anymore. Then you're just overwhelmed and like well everything is priority 1 now. I can't have 1.1 and 1.3 because I just can't do it anymore.

Right. And I think our priorities, they change in our lives. So we have different phases in our lives, and every once in a while you have to check or re-evaluate your priorities and make sure they still align with the will of God, with the vision that God has for your life, things like that, you have to every once in a while check that. And if necessary, do some rearrangements just to stay on course.

Yeah. And if you can do it yourself, I think that's also something that can help you to think about just in case you don't have any priority like well I'm overwhelmed right now maybe get somebody else get some help just somebody who can look over it and help you put order into your 50 priorities and just throw stuff out and help you to get there.

So I think we could say a few more things about priorities, but now we have to prioritize your time and our time And that's why we'd like to come to an end. And we hope you really enjoyed this episode. We hope we could inspire you and could give you some tools like the Eisenhower Matrix to structure or restructure your day. And that's the purpose of this podcast. It's not just to entertain you. We hope that we provide value for you, offer you content that you can use that inspires you, motivates you. And to be a better

person and to be a better Christian, that is the goal of this podcast. So every Thursday we'll send out English episode if you'd like to join us again We would really appreciate it and if you like to leave us a comment and write a review We certainly will appreciate that and that would help us a lot and it also means a lot to us. Anyway, thank you for joining in today and listening to our episode and hopefully we'll see you, no not see you, hopefully you tune in again next time. God bless you, have a great

day.

Until next time, make it a priority!