Priorities

The link

Akimbo Comics on priorities

What it is

Akimbo comics is a webcomic (or many?) I don’t regularly read, to be honest. I saw this particular comic linked somewhere on the internet, and it really hit a nerve.

This particular comic, while on the long side, is worth reading. I’ll assume you’ve red it from now on, so the text below may contain spoilers.

Akimbo seems to focus on personal and philosophical topics. I also liked this one I found poking around the site.

What it means to me

“Stop making excuses”.

This comic hammers home the point that you have room for choice everywhere in your life. Things you personally may not even consider to be choices are in fact completely open. As the comic says implies, it’s easy to become rich if you let go of being a ‘good person’. Where you draw the line is deeply personal, but you should draw it on purpose and stand by it. A decision can only be ethical once it’s a decision.

You can pick whatever you want out of life, and that’s okay. Just don’t lie to yourself.

How many people do you know who are unhappy at their job but stumble on anyway? When I switched jobs, I quit before having something new lined up. Reactions to this were hilarious, from blanket ‘congratulations’ to straight unbelief. What I remember most is the amount of colleagues who had trouble accepting mentally that this decision was even possible.

Other people go to this same priority process, consciously or unconsciously. They may come out of the same environments with radically different outlooks and priorities. Looking back, many of the conflicts I’ve had with people were a matter of perspective. Keeping contact with the other person might have helped to diffuse the situation. In fact, one of the most common mentoring conversations I have reverts around ‘the person you’re having difficulty with isn’t crazy or malicious; he or she just has different interests than you do’.

This realization came at the same time I started to appreciate official governance. Escalation of a conflict isn't necessarily an admittance of failure. Instead, it can force a decision on a conflict that is priority based.

Ultimately, the only thing that breaks through these situations is honest communication.


Leonard