A friend recently was recently asked her to do something that was urgent for work, though she had more important things on her plate. By focusing on the urgent thing, she would have to pull her attention away from the more important thing that she was trying to accomplish. But if she didn't do that thing, the pressure would continue building and people might think she can't be relied upon.

Stephen Covey would recommend that if it was urgent, but not important, then she should delegate it. It was, of course, something kind of important. But, she felt there was no way to delegate, either.

So she felt stuck and like she really had no choice but to attend to the urgent matter first.

A recent event in my life highlighted 4 key lessons when it comes to things seeming URGENT.

I went out for breakfast with my family on Friday and then, when they headed off to school, I ran home. I was about half way home when I suddenly, urgently, needed to use a bathroom. There was nothing around, I was in the middle of a stretch with no facilities. I toyed briefly with the idea of using the bushes, but I rejected that in favor of stopping at a park with a bathroom about a mile away. But, I needed to go.

My body tried in vain to let me know. Oh, I knew. But it’s just up at the top of this long hill. I’ll make it! At some point I had to walk because running made it more urgent. I tried explaining to my body that walking would just make it take longer to get to the bathroom, but my body would have none of that. I could walk, but not run. My whole focus became the urgent goal of getting there. I enjoyed none of my run, the incredible view, the puppies I passed along the way, and whatever thoughts would have been drifting through my head. I was single minded and slowly trudged up the hill.

When I got to the top, about 200 feet from the bathroom, suddenly I could run without feeling crippled. Maybe my body finally believed me. I ran to the bathroom and found this:

It was deadbolted shut. It wasn’t open! Agh! I despaired. The thought of just going in front of the door fleeted across my consciousness, but dismissed immediately.

I went ahead and ran the remaining mile home (where the bathroom WAS available). Relief!!!

Okay, why am I telling you this incredibly embarrassing story? Because there are important lessons embedded here.

1. Things often seem urgent and pull your attention away from your goals, when they are not critical to achieving your goals.

2. Seeing that you do plan to address the urgent issue takes some of the pressure off.

3. Despite your best intentions, it can sometimes take longer than expected to get things done.

4. Things beyond your control may impact your journey, its best just to accept them and keep moving forward.

So what happened with the friend? Well, she acknowledged the urgent request, gave it a token effort and made it clear what her plan was to deal with it completely. In reality, once she made it clear that she recognized the urgency and that she was really going to address it, they accepted the new plan.