What’s The Rush?

Mike Warren — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:26:48 +0000

Everybody’s in such a rush these days, no time to stop and smell the roses. Life just moves too fast. Do you agree with this?

Me too, but I think there should be a follow-on comment … there’s a time and a place for everything. No question we should take time each week to relax, decompress and enjoy all the simple pleasures life has to offer.

But …. at least for me, there is also satisfaction from “climbing the hill”. Doesn’t really matter which hill, it’s just that having a sense of purpose, a meaningful reason to get going each day that adds a measure of satisfaction to life. Retirement – no thanks. But I do want to spend my time doing the things that are important to me.

So from here, the next step is to acknowledge that the more action we take, the more we get done.

So if I really want to be as productive with my time as possible, I need to be a good steward of that time, i.e. use it wisely, not waste it, and realize it’s my most scarce resource.

Still with me? OK, but careful because the water starts to get deeper now.

If I really want to maximize my time, it’s helpful to live my day with a sense of urgency. Not urgency as in panic, but urgency in the sense that I’m moving briskly from task to task, and working with concentration and focus at all times.

As an example, the day before going on vacation we’re generally very focused because we have a list of things that we know we need to get done. That’s working with a sense of urgency. Notice I didn’t say “sense of panic” – don’t want that. But what if we worked with that kind of focus and urgency, during our working hours, every day?

That’s why deadlines are necessary, and encouraged here when you build your goal Action Plan.

I can hear some people thinking “geez, that sounds hard, stressful”, but I don’t agree. A sense of urgency is nothing more than a sense of focused purpose, which precludes spending time doing on the trivial when I can be doing the important. It’s not about panic, it’s about having purpose, eliminating distractions and staying focused. Keeping the main thing the main thing.

In fact, I could build an argument that living our life with a controlled sense of urgency is ultimately less stressful than screwing off too much, getting behind, and dealing with the stress of missed deadlines, broken agreements and disappointing results.

As you can tell, this post is really more about being a good steward of time. Time IS our most precious asset. Using it wisely, with a sensible sense of urgency that understands that each moment counts, is what works best for me at least. How about you?

Achieving Personal Goals » What’s The Rush?

What’s The Rush?