Do you feel lazy about your goals? Do you often procrastinate on things? One probable reason is a lack of seriousness for your goals. A pinch of sense of urgency can help you to overcome it.
This is Part 2 of Sense of Urgency. In the previous episode, we discussed the role of a sense of urgency and its benefits you can listen to this here: Sense of Urgency. You can see the previous episode on youtube also.
In this episode, I will discuss the step-by-step methods to bring a sense of urgency to your goals. If you can follow the following 4 steps to bring a sense of urgency, You would reach your goals faster.
How does sense of urgency work?
Let me now present you with a real-world example. Assume you have a trip planned somewhere because of some essential work. You had made all of the trip arrangements. Your tickets were booked in advance.
Now assume you were on your way there and you were running late for your train. You would reach at the station late, and all of these thoughts are racing through your head. You are thinking about whether or not you’ll be able to catch the train. now think and answer the following questions
- Now you reached the station with all your luggage. Do you think you’ll wait for the porter to arrive and carry your bags for you in this situation? Yes or No?
- Now, as you reach the platform, You hadn’t eaten or drank anything when you left the house this morning. If you came upon a restaurant on the platform, would you stop to eat? Yes or No?
- As you are in hurry, you just want to catch your train. you ran into someone and collided with him on your way to the platform. He starts abusing you. Would you confront him or talk to him? Yes or No?
The answer to all of these questions is determined by the availability of your time in your hand because Your sole aim is to board the train on time. Here the sense of urgency would also depend on whether you have any alternatives for reaching your destination even if you miss the train.
If one had a strong feeling of urgency, he would go to any length to make it to the train on time. That individual would not wait for the porter to carry his bags and would carry them himself. The individual would attempt to accomplish it to the best of his ability and capability.
When a person is motivated to attain his goal, a sense of urgency trumps a sense of luxury. When a student has an exam, he doesn’t care where he studies. Students do not remain concerned about whether the room is air-conditioned or not?. The individual in that scenario would not be concerned with his luxury He would remain focused solely on his aim.
Remember the individual who was insulting and condemning you after you accidentally ran into him? You would not pause to converse with him. Because, according to your sense of urgency, boarding the train is far more essential to you than responding to that individual.
How can you bring a sense of urgency into your life?
Now, the question is how one would bring a sense of urgency into one’s life. There are 2 important things here:
- Understanding importance of your Work
- Sense of your available time
Before moving further to inculcate a sense of urgency for your goals. I would request you to Consider your goal in mind. it can be either a project, your health, your business, or your studies.
Step 1: Break your Goal and Divide your time.
Every goal is associated with some time frame. you might have set for yourself to complete that task. The key here is to divide the task you wish to perform into smaller chunks. While you divide the job into smaller chunks, you may decide how much time to devote to each component out of the overall time.
Assume, for example, that you want to complete 18 chapters of a book in 180 days. After dividing both, we may conclude that one must complete a chapter every ten days.
We may set a deadline of one topic each day if we break it down further. It appeared to be a huge task at first but it would appear very manageable now.
Step 2- Get away to remind yourself
All of us make plans. But We put that in the cupboard and never opens it again. I want you to have some mechanism that makes you remind yourself about it at random intervals. You can paste your plan to a wall where you can see it clearly so that you are always committed to it.
If you are a techie person. You can download any mobile app that has a countdown timer feature. You will now be able to assess your available time more effectively. Every reducing second will create a sense of urgency for your goal.
Step 3- Review progress periodically
you will need to review your progress regularly. A Feedback mechanism is a must to improve your processes, A good feedback makes you to think about what is working or what is not. It helps you to realign the compass. This way, you can keep track of whether or not you are on track to meet your deadlines. This way you would likely get a sense of urgency.
Step 4- Visualise Consequences of your goal.
Sense of Urgency can’t be instilled in your mind until you don’t understand the consequences of your tasks. We all know consequences but We need to understand deep into the heart and our mind. you should write down all the possible consequences of failure. If you do not recognize the importance of your work, Nothing will work, you would often tend to procrastinate. So It is very crucial to understand the impact of your failure on your life. You should read the paper at regular intervals, reminding the importance of the work.
If you follow these steps, It will assist you in establishing a sense of urgency in your thoughts. You will not stray from your course and will continue to move forward to attain your goal. Let me know in comment section what are other ways you deploy to get sense of urgency.
