You're The Most Important Person In This World

This title might have thrown you off. To be honest the first time I heard this statement was this year. People don't often tell you that you are the most important person in the world other than your parents. My parents didn't even tell me that growing up, because that would suggest I was more important than my siblings.

I recently took a CPR/AED class very different than most CPR classes I've taken, I thoroughly enjoyed this class. Brent, our instructor, has been a firefighter & paramedic for decades. In the middle of the class he asked us who the most important person was in an emergency situation. Most people said the injured person... Wrong!

You see if you don't put your health first and foremost, you could seriously be putting your life in danger. If you put your life in danger what sort of help can you be to someone sick or hurt? A perfect example Brent gave us was a firefighter who was on his honeymoon. He saw an accident on the freeway and decided to help. He jumped out of his car to run across the street, and because he put the accident before his own life he ran across the street without looking. He unfortunately passed away, and later his new wife found out that there wasn't even an accident across the road. There was just a man changing his flat tire.

What I took away from Brent's story is that no matter how small or big an instance is, always put your life first. You can't be a good friend, coach, coworker, teacher, or partner without taking care of yourself. 

I have seen this a lot lately. Put yourself first. Manage your time, sleep, workouts, nutrition, and schedule. Prioritizing your time is more important than getting together with friends everyday for drinks. Contrary to what other people believe, I don't think work should always come first. Work isn't more important than your sleep, workouts, happiness, or time with your wife. Find out the things that make you happy and balanced. Once you have all your "musties" then you can go help others and do amazing things.

Make sure you don't spread yourself too thin. I've learned the hard way.