What is your top 5%?

Where do you place your highest priorities in life? And how long is that list?

This is the 2nd time I have blogged this post. You will see the addendum for 2025 about half-way through…take it with a grain of salt if it helps!

A while back I was called to evaluate this list, considering what my next options were in career and vocation. As I tend to be one who spends a lot of time evaluating and introspecting on the healthiest of occasions, these types of lists come easy to me. Or so it has seemed in the past. In short order, I realized my list was muddied and far too long. My top priorities looked more like a menu board at McDonald’s.

I came across the ‘5% principle’ in the book Leading On Empty, by Wayne Cordeiro. When he suffered burnout in leadership his list of important items was out of control, and he realized he needed to consider what the top 5% of his life represented. 85% was the list of tasks that anyone could do in his life, most of which was general maintenance. The next 10% could be called specialized training, things that other people could do in his place but required more effort or ability than just getting up in the morning. In healthy circumstances, these things are pretty easy to identify and keep in their categories.

A 2025 addendum…

This post has been on my mind a lot for a few months now. I always knew why, so I finally decided to do something about it. Honesty is a big deal to me, and for those who have been with me along the long road through burnout, bad mental health, and renewed outlook on life and purpose, you know I like to push for honesty and authenticity, especially for those called into a leadership role. 

What was on my mind? Well, I didn’t really like this book, even though the priority principle stuck with me. There is truth wrapped up in all kinds of places, and what you read in this post is the kernel that fed me at that time. But the book as a whole? It made me angry. Not a little angry…a lot angry. Here I sat, battling the anxiety and depression that had taken hold of all my decision-making capabilities, hurt from a long stretch of battling with church leadership on what they should do with me, completely alienated in my relationships, and the author claimed to be in a similar state of affairs…

Nope. Half a week into a silent retreat and he was pretty much all better! It was the typical church leadership rhetoric I ran into all the time (and still do) that either spiritualized the issue until it could be quickly removed from the public eye, or there was a quick-fix from elsewhere that took care of the problem. And all I could think was how this does not help those of us who are in the pit right now. 

I’m glad we got that out of the way! If you are in a raw state, the book might not be the best read this moment. 

So, that top 5% directs the rest. If it is off, then the train has trouble staying the right track. This is a short list, but it is the important stuff. It comes to a very basic line of thought: What has God called only me to be in this life? What does He require that only I do in the days I have been given?

Surprisingly, answering emails should not be in your 5%. But this list is still less complicated than one might first think. I know it struck me in its simplicity. I have asked others to establish their values in the past; the short list of things on which they will not budge. Why? So they know how to direct themselves in a healthy manner in all matters. But when you lose energy, it is an amazingly easy list to misplace in the junk drawer of the soul.

So, can you list your 5%?