I’ve been reading an article about a young woman who lost both legs in the July 2005 London Tube bombings.
One element of her story struck me deeply (as it did her). After several months’ treatment and recuperation, she returned to the job she loved. The evening before the bombings, she had left on her desk a file marked “Urgent”, full of things she had to deal with the following day. It was still there on her return all those months later, exactly as she had left it. Nothing in it had been done or even started, and there had been no consequences.
How many of us spend our lives convinced that what we are doing is vital, and has to be done there and then? I think we should be asking a few more questions.
Is what we are about to do truly urgent, truly necessary, truly valuable? I suggest that if it is necessary and/or valuable, then we must go ahead with it. And if it is one or both of those things, then it may also be urgent, in which case we must do it fast.
Where we get distracted is by doing things that appear to be both necessary and urgent, but in fact are neither.
Now don’t misunderstand me, when you whittle down to necessary and/or valuable activities, you will still wind up doing some boring, repetitive stuff. Something might be necessary simply because you’ll get into trouble with your boss if you don’t do it.
And by valuable, I don’t necessarily mean “Saviour of the Universe” type valuable. Having fun is valuable (I’d venture to say it is necessary as well). Laughter is one of the most valuable activities we can undertake, for ourselves and for others!
But by engaging only in activities that are necessary and/or valuable, perhaps our daily lives can become an accompaniment to our spiritual growth, not an obstacle to it. Worth thinking about.
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At Weight Watchers the other day we were talking about dealing with urges for food, which were described as irrational and impulsive desires for food. Reading your post made me realize urge and urgent have the same root. Certainly, there are emergencies in life, but most urgent things probably come from the same irrational impulsive place as my urges for ice cream when I’m not hungry. If I can make myself wait or do something else, the urge passes.
I’d write more, but my cell phone, my pager, and my Blackberry are all going off at once.
Peace,
Milton
Milton, thank you for the insight about urge and urgent. You’re absolutely right.
Now go throw all those gadgets in the river!
well said, tess. life gets a lot more fun and meaningful if we can let go of all the things we “think” are urgent. think i’ll go dig in the dirt for awhile
Wow, this post really hit home for me. So, so very true. And a needed reminder. Thank you; I have some re-evaluating to do.
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