Most Important Thing

For those of us who are old enough to recall a time when the world wasn’t moving so fast, the speed-up of change can resemble a tsunami that’s rolled over us, tearing our little boats away from their moorings. Afloat in unknown waters, without the familiar landmarks and home ports, we can truly feel adrift and rudderless. If we do set a course, seems we’re at the mercy of any storm that comes up.


Navigating to achieve success with our goals is less like motoring (where you head your boat for a destination and get there in a straight line) and more like sailing, where you must go indirectly, more or less dependent on the way the breeze is blowing at any one time. Sailing requires skill in reading the wind, changing directions by shifting sails and rudder. It’s a matter of balancing control and surrender -- cooperating with, rather than doing battle with, the sudden shifts of fortune. The smart ones among us, when finding themselves out of their depth like this, turn within and develop “in-here” anchors that can give us the stability we used to find by looking “out-there.”

The main thing, of course, is to know where you’re going, and that’s much harder to handle these days if your attention is fixed “out-there”, outside your skin. But again, an inward focus on those inner unchangeables—values, purpose, integrity—can bring you through any storm.

The most important thing in life, after all, is what it always was: to know what the most important thing in life is.

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