keeping priorities
Leo had been asking us for months to get an electric bike.
I had no interest in getting one for him–he already had an electric scooter that allowed him to navigate around our community with his friends, and he has a bike that works perfectly. I didn’t see a need for an electric bike. Plus, given that he’s twelve years old, the electric bike represented laziness to me–he could just pedal to keep up with his friends if he chose to ride his bike over the scooter.
Naturally, I gave in.
But not until Leo had taken on some tasks that we told him he needed to do to show he had the maturity for the responsibilities and additional risks of riding an electric bike.
Yesterday his bike arrived.
Leo was not going to let the day end without testing out his new ride, despite our usual busy evening of practices, training, schoolwork, and dinner. I tried to get out of putting it together, but I put my Self in his shoes and thought about the feeling my twelve-year-old Self would have had knowing I couldn’t try out the thing I had wanted so badly. After cleaning up dinner, I watched a YouTube video with instructions on how to assemble the bike correctly and joined Leo in the garage.
It didn’t take long to assemble the bike, so Leo could test it out, and to my surprise, he even let Roman take a quick spin on it.
Leo was appreciative of the bike and that we got to put it together–he went above and beyond to let us know, including a late last-minute text to thank me one more time and assure me that he would be careful when riding it and never go full speed with it.
You might be wondering what this has to do with keeping priorities.
Well, you might notice that you are getting this Note much later in the day than usual, and if you listen to the Daily Note on the AlignedLife podcast, you haven’t received a new episode for today. This is because when I went into the garage to build Leo’s bike is when I usually write the Daily Note for the next day. Normally, I can write in the morning, but this morning I didn’t have time because it is Friday and Fridays are when I take Silas (and Leo today) to our favorite coffee shop for donuts before taking him to school.
Last night, Leo was the priority.
This morning, Silas and Leo were the priorities.
It’s not that the Daily Notes aren’t a priority for me—they very much are. But they fall further down the list of priorities.
Part of me hated that I wouldn’t be able to write the Daily Note until later—a small part of me.
Most of me was perfectly fine waiting to write the Daily Note because of the time I got to spend in the garage with Leo, seeing the smile on his face as he rode his bike, and getting to have my Friday morning cold brew while Silas had a donut.
Ultimately, it was an easy decision to push the Daily Note until later, still completing it and respecting the priority it is, and making sure I kept the most important priorities first.
Sidenote: I also wouldn’t have had this subject for today’s Daily Note had I made Leo wait on his bike and written my Note last night.
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
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