It's absolutely not more important than your life.
When the story wants to be told, the words flow freely. It's hard for me to consciously direct a story. I tend to start with the idea that the story already exists, and I just need to find it.
It's almost funny to me now that I ever thought I could explore all of the layers of complexity needed to build a story in a month. At least without being able to devote all of my time to it.
I do wish you luck in continuing to build your own!
The way too look at it, then, is to realize the complexity of this thing we've seen ourselves do. To tell a compelling story. It's so complicated that reverse engineering it is beyond our initial expectations of difficulty. Yet when it's suppose to happen, we do it effortlessly. :)