Human First

I had an aha moment this week when I was participating in a retreat for leaders.  The facilitator simply said, “human first”.  This was in the context of several participants discussing the overwhelming schedules and work loads that they were juggling and how they felt when they let things drop or could not find the energy to accomplish more and more. Human first is a pretty simple statement and message, but I think it offers so many of us something to think about.  We are often quick to ask about what a person’s job is, if they have kids, what they contribute to community. It is often an auto response to describe how busy we are.  We get a little focused on human doing more than being.  And so in this frantic focus on doing we can get caught up in roles, jobs, accomplishments, and all that we do.  What does it mean then to just focus on human first? To me it is a reminder that we are worthy just in being here, we are of value in our humanness, in just who we are, not what we do and accomplish.  How does that change what we do day to day, does it mean that we stop doing?  Not possible, but perhaps it just means that we ensure that in our internal dialogue we know that if we are doing things its not to make sure we matter, that we are worthy, we already are as humans.