How many times do you hear: “this is urgent”… “X” has asked for this report asap, we need the information by the end of the morning, I am sorry to come on a rush but we are on a hurry and we need your help Now, … many many times.
No one can live forever inmersed in a sense of urgency, always asked to give a bit more and faster. No one.
We work hard, we can run the extra mile, we will strive when it’s necessary, because the moment, the project, the circumstances demand it. But, that can last forever. That’s on the giver side, but what about the petitioner? Do you know anyone who has always something really urgent to be done? Who, when asking for help, ends the sentence with a but we need for Now…
Here is a story, Peter and the wolf. It is about a shepherd who, just for fun, cried for help. The wolf is coming! People in town would go for help and when they realized it was a joke, would get very upset. The shepherd did it again, just for fun. Once again, the village’s people would go for help. And, again they would realise it wasn’t true.
This went on for a while. After some time, the shepherd saw the wolf approaching and he cried for help once more, this time it was true: Help! The wolf is coming! The villagers, having learnt the lies of the shepherd, turned a deaf ear this time. And what happened? The shepherd saw how the wolf leaped on his sheep while he tried to ask for help one more time.
Turning into urgent what is not ends up on disbelief. How will you be able to differentiate the urgent and important from what is not? How do you recognize that is not a false call, that the wolf is truely here?
We should be more careful when calling URGENT!!!