Priority is a singular word. Though we have over time told ourselves that we can have multiple priorities, that isn’t necessarily the case. I’m coming to realize that the highest priority that I have had for the majority of my life is ease. I could also call it comfort or safety. I would say that I have lived a life of going after the low hanging fruit.
Where I have noticed this most, especially recently, is the activities that I enjoy and where I spend most of my time. TV, video games, YouTube, sure they are entertaining and they all take little to no effort on my part. I show up and they do what they are designed to do. I do not challenge myself or struggle to achieve an end goal.
There is no risk. There is no growth. There is no challenge. No challenge outside of trying to decide what I will watch among the endless shows on Netflix or videos on YouTube.
I kid.
I experience entertainment, however, I do not feel that spark of excitement from stretching myself, accomplishing something that made me expand outside of what I thought capable.
They are all low hanging fruit.
The interesting part of this, though, is that I have always envisioned myself as someone capable of climbing to the top of the tree for sweeter fruit. Sweeter because it took more effort to earn.
Let’s say, for the sake of the image, that the better fruit is always at the top of the tree. Thus having to be earned, rather than simply picked up off the ground or handed to us.
Yes, I see myself climbing to the top of the tree, grabbing the sweetest fruit of all and being celebrated for my climbing prowess. And yet in reality all I have in my possession is frustration and confusion as to why I don’t already have those things.
My priority has been easy and safe, not the sweetest fruit.
I have to be willing to get scratched, bruised and whipped by some branches on the way up. I’m a big guy, just to get started I know it’s going to take more strength than what I have.
Honestly, the low hanging fruit isn’t all that bad either. But knowing what I’m capable of and settling for something that is “fine” just isn’t going to cut it any longer.