The Urgency of Life's Goals

[ProjectX]

How does one try to maintain a sense of urgency for important tasks and goals without feeling overwhelmed and anxious?

[curiouslyrandom]

No idea. I've stopped even bothering with a sense of urgency in much of anything. I just do what needs to be done when it needs to be done and then I take a nap!

Life is so much more fun without a sense of urgency. You're going to die eventually, why hasten the journey?

[alexb5784]

Originally Posted by ProjectX

How does one try to maintain a sense of urgency for important tasks and goals without feeling overwhelmed and anxious?

If the goal is really important and meaningful, you won't have to create a sense of urgency. True goals create so much passion and joy that you'll naturally want to work on them 24/7. But when the goal isn't a good fit for you and lacks passion, you'll find yourself working really hard and feeling anxious.

This is when you're butting your head up against the wall and trying hard to make things work out. But unfortunately the situation doesn't get better. And as a result, you might conclude that you're not "focused enough" or you lack "discipline".

Neither are true, rather the goal is a poor fit and needs to be dumped.

When you start to work on goals that are truly aligned with who you are and how you want to make a difference, it will be very easy to gather up the energy to work on them. Things will flow. However, you will have to do the work to go from dream to goal completion. You can't wish it or expect things to manifest without taking conscious action.

When your vision for what you want to accomplish is strong, you'll easily move through the setbacks and roadblocks that come your way. In fact, you'll enjoy moving through these difficult situations because you know in your heart that what you're doing is compelling and meaningful.

The best type of goals to set are those that enable you to help others. When you set a goal only focused on what YOU want, need, desire, and want to accomplish, you might achieve it but it won't be sustainable.

Now that I've ran my mouth a bit, what do you think? Also, what types of goals are you having problems with?

Share your story

[Clint Cora]

I have a review with myself each month to check the status of all of my goals - I learned this during my corporate life. I'm also frequently monitoring many of my tasks so that if anything is being left behind, I can pick up on it fairly quickly.

Also, I am always making sure that I'm exposed to lots of excellent personal development and productivity tips. Although many are repetitive, that's okay because they serve as constant reminders that I should stay on track.

All of this will help ensure that my most important tasks are being attended to.

[Sansone]

To tell the truth, I wasn't able to overcome feelings of being overwhelmed and stressed out until I shut down my ability to consider most matters urgent.

Without looking it up, it sort of seems like if something is "urgent" that it's something to be worried about.

Of course, when almost nothing is urgent that can come with its own set of problems.

It's a tough line to ride though, so I just go with non-urgent unless there's screaming or smoke. Then possibly urgent, but unlikely.

[Clint Cora]

What makes things overwhelming is the sheer size of some goals. If we broke such goals down in smaller pieces that you can achieve in a week, then they would be much less overwhelming but at the same time, still retain their importance since they are still necessary to achieve the big overall goal.

So chop big goals down to smaller pieces but make these smaller goals top priority.