What are your roles?

We are all chameleons.

We switch our colors depending on the situation and are so used to it that we don't even notice. On a typical morning, I transform from groomer to breakfast chef to diner to husband to father then driver and teacher.

Our roles constantly shift throughout the day. At times, I'm a teacher. Other times, I'm a friend or son or shopper or consumer or writer.

When I introspect, I realize that it took me a loooong time to even understand this concept. Then, once I did, it helped me prioritize and ponder what roles are most important to me.

It turns out that the most important commodities are time and money. In order to maximize those, and maximize our lives, prioritizing our roles is critical. How can we properly spend our time or money, if we don't know who we are and what is truly important to us?

Now, this sounds pretty darn simple. But then why do so many people waste time and money on things that aren't priorities?

For me, the roles I prioritize are: 1) husband, 2) father and 3) teacher (or writer, in the summer).

I am wondering what three roles are most important to you. I'm curious Please put your three roles as a comment below.

If you happen to be a student, I wonder if student is No. 1 on your list, or if son or daughter or brother or sister or athlete or Christian or anything else is actually ranked higher than student. If this is difficult, do a chart like this one:

The problem I see around me is that many adults view their roles as 1) work, 2) work and 3) work. I base that on where they spent their time and their conversations.

This work mentality develops in school when many students are either bombarded with work or are so focused on "being successful" or "getting into a good college" that they put their childhoods, family and friends far on the back burner. Is this what we really want from our children?

Well, I am not promoting neglecting schoolwork or our professions. Quite the contrary. I'm just questioning if our time is being spent where we want it.

I won't go on my typical rant on how the kids today are too much on their phones and often not aware of their screen time. I already did that here.

I could also go on a rant on how adults spend too much time with work, and I'm sure they would undoubtedly say work is important because they have to make ends meet. Agreed. But what is the point about making ends meet if that's all we have in our lives?