It’s a fairly generic question, isn’t it? What is important? It’s vague enough that an equally vague answer satisfies it. You could just say “God” or “family” or “health” or any number of responses but none of them actually answer the question in terms of what is really important to you.

It’s a question that pops up from time to time but it’s something most of us don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about. We think about what we want and what we need but do we ever encompass those thoughts with the idea of what we deem important?

Recently, I’ve been asking this question to myself quite a bit and I finally came to a bit of a conclusion… for me. The odd thing about it is, that I don’t know if I would have had the same answer a few years ago, maybe even a few weeks ago because I have learned that what is important to us changes quite a lot as we grow older.

If you’d have asked me what was important to me in high school I would have said a “Porsche 911 SC Targa” or “girls” or “money”, maybe because I didn’t have any of those things. As I evolved, I got married and checked off one of those boxes and I worked and made a little bit of money and checked off another one. I never got that Porsche but I don’t really want one anymore.

It’s funny because when you finally get to the point where you can afford those youthful fantasies, you realize that they are not that important to you. What’s important to me now is that my kids are happy and healthy. I guess, what was important to me in college was that I was happy and healthy, a subtle but important evolution.

The more you dig into this simple question, the more you realize that it breaks down into all the different aspects of your life. What’s important to you healthwise, careerwise, family-wise, relationship-wise and so on… These are all separate answers. There is no one vague answer that suffices.

“Life is like a camera, focus on what is important and you will capture it perfectly.”

~ Linda Poindexter

The specific question that I’ve been asking myself is what is important to me careerwise. I’ve been blessed to have some amazing experiences in my career. In fact, I just got back from a work trip to Palestine and Israel that was life-altering. This particular project has been incredibly exciting and satisfying but as I get back to my normal work schedule in the next few weeks, I can’t help but think that something is missing.

When I talk about this project, my eyes light up, my energy is high and I’m just happy but when I think about going back to the day job, my energy fades. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, it’s that… again, something is missing. Whatever is missing must be important because I wouldn’t be spending this much time thinking about it if it weren’t.

After much introspection, it dawned on me what was missing: I’m not growing in this job. I’m not evolving in this job. I’m not pushed in this job. I’m not afraid of this job. The excitement is gone.

What is important to me career-wise is that I evolve, that I get better, that I learn. If I’m not learning than the symbiotic balance that I need is missing. I guess I don’t look at a job as me doing something for money. I look at is as I’m doing something for the company I work for and I’m getting something back by learning or expanding my horizons in some way and if I don’t have that, I’m not really interested in that job anymore.

After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I need to challenge myself more. I need to put myself out there and risk failure because I’m in a comfort zone now and it’s too easy to get trapped in it.

What’s important to me is evolving and getting a little better at being me every single day.

What’s important to you?