Over the years, I often used the headline of “Big Rocks” on my To-Do List to highlight the top things I needed to accomplish that day or week. It was a system that kept me focused on the highest priorities.

Somewhere along my career it seems I crossed a threshold where one is never caught up, regardless of hours worked, and the Big Rock list became an asteroid field too depressing to chronicle each week.

I have reached the point in life, family, and career where the bucket of time is too small and the days behind may outnumber the days ahead; and the realization has set in that the accomplishments I can put down on paper will not be anywhere in the book recounted to me on the day when I will answer for what I have done with the time, talent, and resources given to me in this life.

This set of scales weighed heavy on my mind over Memorial Day weekend, as my family and I spent time together on horseback, in trout streams, and around the glow of an evening fire. I found myself pondering the things which consume my energy; those things I wish to pursue and feel obligated to accomplish.

Being continually distracted, hearing but not listening, sleeping but not resting, and stressing over things that get done and simply replaced by more things….has become the norm. All is Vanity says Solomon. He was right.

So I’m challenging myself to think about Big Rocks differently. To ask God each day what should be on that list. To listen and hear, to hear and remember, to remember and appreciate. To live out the reminder on my forearm of minor plus est. To be deliberate in maintaining balance.