The Main Thing

By Jeff Becraft

One of my mentors says, “Too many choices and too many voices.”  He is right.

Taking a shower is a great example. It used to be that if you took a shower (particularly in a shower that you are not familiar with), you had one, or two at the most, bottles to choose from for the shampoo. If people used conditioner, then that might account for the second bottle. (Once in junior high… we didn’t know nuthin’ about anything called middle school… right about the time when I was beginning to care about what I looked like… I mistakenly took the conditioner bottle to be shampoo. To say that my hair looked gnarly the next day would be an understatement. I’m sure all the 8th grade girls were wondering, “What is wrong with the dude with the gnarly hair?”)

But now, if we go to visit our youngest daughter, there are like 12 bottles of stuff in the shower. Now I can’t see or hear and I do not wear my reading glasses into the shower. So there I am trying to figure out which is the bottle of shampoo that I can use.

When we go to hotels, the choices are smaller (3 or 4)… but then so are the bottles. I usually grab whatever looks the clearest and hope it’s not mouthwash. (But even mouthwash would probably render better results than trying to “wash” your hair in straight conditioner.)

When there are so many choices, so many voices, and so many things pulling at us, then there is an important principle that I learned from another mentor: “The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.”

So if you find yourself overwhelmed in the weeds, go back to the main thing. That is what is most important.

Jeff Becraft is the Interim Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Youth Corps is a life-changing leadership development experience that inspires high school students to be leaders in the Midlands and beyond. You can connect with Jeff at [email protected].