Get Unstuck: Why Urgency Is the Key to Progress

Imagine, for a moment, a life-or-death scenario—even something ridiculous like being chased by a lion. In that moment, you'd have no choice but to fight, to run—to take action!

While 99.9% of us will never literally be chased by a lion, it does offer a very visual 'high urgency' and 'high importance' scenario. In our day-to-day lives, we're confronted with these types of situations regularly, although they are (almost) never actually life-threatening. Rather, they're the times when asked to do something like give a presentation, respond to an angry partner, or move off the starting blocks when the race begins. These scenarios all require action, and when confronted with these moments, we act.

Now, think about sitting down to tackle your personal finances. You've got spreadsheets, receipts, and statements to review...but you're tired. It's been a long day, and you know in the back of your mind that you can always pick it up another time.

Personal finances are undeniably important—essential, even, for long-term well-being. But that's the point: they matter in the LONG TERM. They're important, but not urgent. So, we reflect on them, and then often push them aside for another day.

Importance alone doesn't drive action—urgency does. No matter how important something is, if there is no urgent need to act, it is incredibly difficult to find the motivation to do so.

Steven Covey captures this in his classic '7 Habits of Highly Effective People'. He proposes there are four categories that different activities fall into, and labels them in the following way:

• Quadrant 1: IMPORTANT AND URGENT - Emergencies or tasks with tight deadlines.

• Quadrant 2: IMPORTANT NOT URGENT - Activities like career planning, family time, or personal goals.

• Quadrant 3: URGENT NOT IMPORTANT - Tasks such as responding to emails or routine housework.

• Quadrant 4: NOT URGENT OR IMPORTANT - Things like scrolling social media, watching TV, or other distractions.

Stephen Covey’s 4 Quadrants

At work, there are incentives and resources available to ‘delegate’ or 'eliminate' activities that fall into Quadrants 3 and 4. However, in your personal life, this same approach doesn’t hold true.

• Quadrant 3 activities in personal life are endless. There is always something that can be made to feel urgent, and delegating these activities cost personal money or time.

• Quadrant 4 activities are also plentiful and worse—they are insidious. Technology constantly vies for our attention - Instagram feed scrolling, YouTube dealt-spiralling, and Netflix binge watching. Eliminating these activities is possible, but also makes you a difficult person to relate to in our modern world.

Quadrant 1 activities will always get done - they have to. And unfortunately, Quadrant 3 and 4 activities will always creep in and compete for as much time as they can get. For these, there are no clear incentives to limiting them in our personal lives.

But—if you're looking to make progress on an important goal or objective in your life, that work almost always lives in Quadrant 2. Investing in the important, but non-urgent activities is where the real 'good stuff' happens.

To make room for Quadrant 2 activities, a person must intentionally CREATE space in their life. But creating space requires energy, discipline, time, money—or some combination of these—all of which are limited resources.

Instead of focusing solely on creating space (which is hard), consider creating URGENCY instead. By creating urgency, you can shift that important work into the 'Quadrant 1' category—the place where the work always gets done.

An approach to creating urgency toward an important objective is through creating accountability. Forbes has reported that building accountability into a goal-setting framework increases the changes of success by 95%. This approach is simple but not easy to execute. Setting goals can be challenging on its own, and adding accountability—either on your own or with a group—introduces the fear of failure.

Fear often makes the comfort of the status quo feel more appealing.

Pushing back against fear doesn’t come naturally for anyone, but it is possible. The act of committing to change, despite the fear, and making it happen ultimately leads to growth. In my own life, fear has held me back for years. However, in the three big moments of courage I’ve had in my life, the outcomes have always exceeded my greatest expectations.

If you're considering a change in your life, aspiring to reach a goal, or taking on something challenging, be aware that there will be forces working against you. Prioritizing change is hard and it can feel scary. Without a sense of urgency to drive you, that goal will constantly compete with your established habits, routines, and fears, and more than likely, it won’t get done.

To see real results on your journey to change, consider adding an accountability layer to your goals in order to introduce a sense of urgency. It will feel scary, but it's the key to making change happen.

Many things in life feel important but don't get done because importance alone isn't enough. Urgency, not just importance, drives action.

Set a deadline. Share your intention. Ask to be held accountable. That’s the key to getting unstuck and moving yourself forward.