We live with a sense of urgency being in a hurry to achieve things. We struggle to take time off to relax, whereas being relaxed even in heightened activity should be our way of life.
There are of course situations like medical emergencies, financial distress and natural calamities that need urgent attention. We must act responsibly with alacrity when called upon.
But it’s the self imposed urgency that disturbs our peace. Our self imposed urgency comes from a flawed perspective. We sometimes believe that being rushed and pressured is being effective and dynamic. And we’ve lost faith in the calm and steady approach of focus and excellence.
It comes from impatience. We want things in a shorter time frame and believe we control outcomes and time lines. But a good gardener has the sense and patience to wait for years for the seed to become a tree.
It comes from our ego. We use our position to put pressure on others to deliver to unrealistic deadlines at any cost. Not only do we damage relationships and health, we destroy organisational culture.
Urgency stems from our insecurity. The need to win a race. But life is not a race, it’s a journey. Our constant comparison takes away the pleasure of the experience, and we keep chasing things in a frenzy, true happiness becoming elusive.
We just need to stop and look around to understand life.
A mother needs nine months to deliver a child. The earth takes twenty four hours to rotate around its axis. Christmas takes a year till we celebrate again. A surgeon doesn’t rush his operation and a chess grandmaster ponders over every move, both realising haste will be lethal.
And when we don’t procrastinate and attend to important things in time, we avoid them becoming urgent and stressful.
When we start enjoying each day, living with attention, focus and elegance to bring out our best, we realise the futility of stressing ourselves. We replace ‘urgency’ with a ‘job well done’.
And we become mindful that we don’t deny ourselves this wonderful experience called life, knowing it’s not about living with urgency. It’s about living with enjoyment.
They say always invest with a long term view and that will create true wealth. So that applies to many things in life.( Love , health and more) . Also it’s important to enjoy the process as you have mentioned so many times . Thanks Vivek ! Have a good day!