What comes to mind when you visualize all your priorities? Can you see them in a popcorn popper jumping around? Do you ever feel like, when you make a list of tasks and priorities and something comes up to shift your plan, that your priorities are jumping around uncontrollably? I’m thinking there’s a lesson in flexibility snuggled in that scenario – popcorn priorities for dynamic change.

We’ve all heard it once or twice in our lives – adapt, adapt, adapt! Now, consider again that list of tasks. You focus and put on your determination boots. You feel motivated to knock out that ‘to-do’ list. Then, your boss taps you on the shoulder, and BOOM, all that focused energy turns to chaos or overwhelm.

If you sidetrack yourself to tend to this new, urgent request, what happens to your focus, your determination, and your motivation? What about your to-do list? You leave your current task, and another one all of a sudden gets your attention. One team screams and then another team screams. Your attention and priorities have to adapt.

Yes, we still have choice about how we’re going to respond. It can be frustrating! Feel the chaos of your list getting bigger or re-prioritized. We can choose to dance with the ‘change dynamic’ and realize it’s okay to shift our focus. The thing about lists, even though they feel like you’re setting something in stone sometimes, they are simply a guide to help us get from one point to the next. Priorities in the popcorn popper: they shift and move around. When the popper stops, the popcorn is done. Now, you get to enjoy a yummy snack. I think our priorities sometimes need us to remember what it’s like to be Gumby – all flexible and adaptive. Get you’re Gumby on – adapt, remember we as humans can be flexible, and let those priorities pop! Goodness will surely follow.