I lost my purse. I put my phone down to find my purse. I found my purse. I lost my phone. Where are my keys? And so it goes….

I am accustomed to losing control of the day. And most days I am equally prepared to do so around 1 or 2 p.m. I am not, however, prepared for this type of chaos before 7:30 a.m. Today, I surrendered my control of all daily circumstances before 6:30 a.m.

I had already missed one appointment. I had already been forced to call an associate who graciously walked me through an entire administrative process. I was asked to resubmit a proposal and I reluctantly rescheduled a 12:30 p.m. meeting. I cried a little when my 9 a.m. appointment was late and by the time I realized I was double booked at 10:30 a.m., all I could do was laugh like a crazy person.

With all the urgent and important things to do, what did I do? First things first of course! Because I have had days like this before, I recognized that there were less than 24 hours left to endure. In my optimism to start fresh, I did the math and realized there were actually less than 11 hours to go. So, I did what any professional would do.

I called one of my very good friends to sing him happy birthday. Although he encouraged me not to sing it again, I think I heard him laugh. I got a cup of coffee and did my Bible study. I took a few deep breaths and remembered that I am never really in control of anything, but that all my steps are directed by my loving heavenly Father.

Now, I am back to business marking ‘big rocks’ off my to-do list. Will everything get finished? Nope, not even a chance. Will they all be there tomorrow? Without a doubt and they may not get finished then.

My priorities are a bit different since I’ve experienced so many days like this. I trust myself to be a successful professional without neglecting the first things like serving my God to whom I owe my complete loyalty. Or the first things like being a good friend, something I failed to do earlier in my life.

What I’ve learned is that everything else will naturally fall into its perfect place when we consistently put first things first.