How to Take Control of Your Life

Do you ever feel like life is going by and you’re just along for the ride? Or that things are constantly happening that you have to address, which are preventing you from ever getting ahead? Well you’re not alone because this is how the majority of people live, and the worst part is that they have no idea why!

The primary issue is in the types of activities we choose to do in our day to day lives. There are two general classifications of activities that we do, important activities and urgent activities. General Dwight D. Eisenhower once stated “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

The difference between urgent and important activities 

Important activities are ones that contribute to our long-term missions and goals. Whereas urgent activities are simply required to be completed right away, and often serve someone else’s missions and goals. The problem is that we are too often caught up doing urgent things when we should be doing important things.

The reason we get caught up doing urgent things is because the urgent things have immediate consequences whereas important things have consequences far down the line. People also become addicted to the urgent because it keeps us busy and we don’t have to think, or plan for the long term. 

On top of this we are constantly being bombarded by urgent things from social media and news breaks. Over time our mind becomes conditioned to only respond to urgent things. And when we are only performing urgent tasks we are living in a reactive state of mind. We can’t get ahead because we are never doing activities that will help us in the future. 

Some examples of things that are urgent and not important in our day to day lives might be text messages, phone calls, emails, distracting conversations, or someone requesting help. Some things that are important but not urgent might be reading, prayer, exercising, or long-term planning. 

Almost without exception the things that would make a tremendous positive impact in our lives are things that are important and not urgent. 

So how do we shift from doing urgent things to doing important things?

The transition will be difficult because you will likely have to allow some urgent things to pass unattended. Until you have done your important activities each day you cannot allow yourself to be distracted by the urgent. 

If you are able to address all of the important things in your life each day, you will see that the number of urgent things that come across your plate will begin to decrease because your problems are being addressed in advance before they can become problems. 

Now there are some select things that are urgent and important such has medical emergencies, a project deadline, or an upcoming test. But the logic is still the same that if you are able to focus on the important things you will significantly reduce the number of things that are urgent and important. You won’t have to rush on your project because you will have been working on it well in advance. You won’t have to cram for the test because you started studying weeks ago. 

We have the ability to take charge in our lives, not just by taking action, but by taking the right action. 

Benjamin Franklin once said “An ounce of prevention is worth a bound of cure.”  

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