In our lives, knowing what is important and what is not should be of real focus to all of us.

I have a friend of mine that refers to this as choosing to win the battle or win the war. The battles are the little things and the war is the important things.

I know a person that said no her children on everything and fussed, nagged and stayed on the children about even the smallest things for years. The children grew up and got to the point of not listening to her at all. She may have won the battles but she lost the war over her children. I have two older daughters and I would like to believe (they may not agree, ha) that we fought to win the wars and choose not to fight every battle. The battles are the picking up the clothes, not washing the dishes, having a party at the house, staying up late, talking to knot headed boys at 1am, returning later than expected from a date and etc. etc. The wars are the important things like their safety, their health, education, sex, drugs, alcohol and the things that could have harmed their lives.

While parenting there are some things you just have to let slide if you want them to listen to you when the important things happen. In business like life, there are some small things you just have to get over because they won’t alter your future like the important things.

It is like the story of the boy who thought it would be funny to cry wolf so all the town would wake up needlessly. He thought it was so funny, he cried wolf several times just for the fun of it. The problem happened when there really was a wolf and when he cried wolf, no one listened to him.

The simple children’s story about the wolf really captures the total essence of this subject. Don’t fight every battle to the death of a relationship because you will not be respected and listened to when the war comes along.

So in your business and family relationships I believe it is important to decide ahead of time which are the battles and which are the wars. Save your influence, energy and strength for the important wars and not every little battle. KT