The Wisdom of the Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire Cat Message

"Which road should I take?" she asked the cat.

"Where do you want to go?" the cast asked helpfully.

"I don't know," admitted Alice.

"Then," advised the cat, "any road will take you there."

A conversation between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll

So many people are so extremely busy--most often busy doing good things. The Savior himself "went about doing good..." (Acts 10:38). The Savior also had a vision--a purpose for his doing--and that was "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). Having a vision allowed him to not only do good but also to stay focused on choosing to do the best things amongst all the good things he could be doing.

Without a vision we can be busy doing many good things and never see results. In fact, we won't even know if we have arrived at a desired result. If we don't have a vision of where we want to be--what we want to accomplish--, any road filled with good things will take us to some place although it might not be the best place.

We're All Busy

I once heard that when we tell others how busy we are, especially when we use it as an excuse for not doing something, we are insinuating that others aren't busy. The one thing that seems to be most time consuming in my life is following up with people who didn't respond to the first request for a response. It is especially frustrating when the person's response is needed before I can move forward on an important project.



Some things to keep in mind:

• Everyone is busy in one way or another although maybe not always with the most important things


• Everyone seems to find time to do the things they really want to do


• The busiest people, more often than not, are the ones who get most done (maybe because they don't waste time and energy telling others how busy they are!)


• It is courteous and polite and respectful of other people's time when one responds to an email or phone message within 24 hours


• Being on time to meetings is respectful. In case no one else is there to appreciate your punctuality, always carry reading and writing material. It will be amazing how much one can accomplish while waiting!

How we spend the 24 hours allotted to each of us each day defines who we are and ultimately our potential to meet the goals we set for ourselves and what we accomplish. It's really not about how busy we are.