Urgent Request
I heard this quote today while listening to one of the many podcasts I listen to every day, it went something like this:
““What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower ”
I had to stop and think about this one and I don't know why I didn't get it right away... other than the fact that I was asked to be at work sooner than later for an “urgent” meeting. I felt so hurried that I almost lost this delightful quote and its simplicity in the white noise of “my tiny skull-sized kingdom”.
What is important is seldom urgent
How did I miss this for so long? The simple fact that if something is in fact “urgent” it's probably not that important. And I think this is really talking about day-to-day life and not the real emergencies in life such as giving birth, ER visits, life and death kinda stuff, etc. What I think this is talking about is the drama or fever we create about our daily life stuff. The stuff we do when “life gets lifey” kinda stuff (thanks, Kathy).
What is urgent is seldom important
How true! To follow up from above... the real important stuff takes time and the real, real important stuff is planned and thought out and on a long arc that may span a lifetime. More than likely, if it's really important it has already been done before you can get there to fuck it up. ;) ... you... harumph... you know who you are. :)
Found this matrix over at http://www.artofmanliness.com
I found this chart above while looking for the quote's author. This chart really got me thinking about what I think is important and what I act on as “urgent”.
““LIke a dog running on linoleum... All action, but going nowhere.”
— Unknown”
This article got me think about how and when I should be acting on what is really important. It's not always easy to see these things and how they impact me in my daily life. I'm glad I took the time to look this up and I am really glad I didn't let this piece of today's puzzle slip by me.
Hope you found this as useful as I have! Thanks for reading!
