Have you ever had a day neatly planned out to accomplish your specific and essential goals (work, family time, exercise, leisure, writing or reading, volunteerism, whatever) and you have eagerly begun BUT your phone or Blackberry/iPhone rings or texts you suddenly? EMERGENCY!
...and your perfect day is derailed.
What happened? Your child threw up in the lunchroom and needs to be picked up NOW. There's a leak in your bathroom floor, the tenant downstairs is complaining, the landlord is calling, the super needs to get in NOW. The sewer pipe in your 89-year-old investment duplex in Syracuse burst with the winter cold - call the plumber, call the property manager, reassure the tenant or put them up in a motel, fix it NOW. A diabetic family member is rushed to ICU, blood sugar crashed or soaring, get there NOW. A friend calls crying because they broke up with their boyfriend of four years, reassure them NOW. A colleague contacts you about an urgent project when you have 25 other top-priority projects on your desk already, get theirs done NOW.
Does any of this sound familiar? So what's the point? The issue is not the time it takes to take care of whatever has occurred. Life happens. It's inevitable. The problem is that it shatters our focus and distracts us from the underlying values, goals and dreams that were the foundation for our day's plans.
If you are anything like me, it's disappointing and discouraging to look at my essential to-do list for TODAY and have to move everything to TOMORROW. Tomorrow already has its own essential actions to be taken. Piling on Today's does not help.
What Can Be Done?
Evaluate your own priorities and values beforehand and act with those in mind. Otherwise, you will find yourself ricocheting around like a bb in a tin can to somebody else's urgent needs. Here are your options:
Act NOW
Delegate NOW
Negotiate NOW
Schedule Appointment NOW
Decline NOW
It does not always have to be YOU! But, if ACT NOW to address the emergency aligns with your fundamental values, goals and dreams, reschedule today's essential actions to a different day. Forgive yourself for not finishing everything and move on. Superman and Superwoman only exist in the movies and you are doing exactly what you are meant to do TODAY.
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