"Reality Bends to the Will."

Far too often I find others, and occasionally myself, having a misplaced sense of urgency. There is always some big project that needs to be worked on, an urgent assignment that needs to be done in a hurry, or just a regular weekly task. Today’s society places such urgency into getting these labors completed as soon as possible yet the urgency is dictated only by ourselves.

Several weeks ago, after a considerable amount of workplace stress, I realized the effects of misplacing urgency first hand. My realization was that the only one assigning urgency to tasks or situations was myself and that everything that I was working on would be no different than if it were completed a week early or a week late. Trade out a week for a month, same effect… I was so focused on the important matters that I lost track of the smaller things that are essential to daily life.

We all are habitually drawn to the big, important issues because of the fact that they are big and important. News flash: the major issues will always take care of themselves because of the extra attention that gravitates towards them. The smaller things in life are not as lucky. This is where we consciously (or even unconsciously) assign urgency. We can either assign our urgency to the big issues that are already getting the extra attention or we can choose to assign it to the elements that aid in accomplishing it (i.e. taking breaks, eating, not putting off daily exercise, etc.).

My challenge to everyone is to evaluate your priorities throughout a regular workday. Urgency should still be assigned in order to make progress throughout one’s day but not in excess and not to matters that are urgent in themselves. It is only ourselves that ultimately decide whether something is urgent or not…