How much of your day do you spend doing urgent things? Do you start the day with a list of things that need to be done today? Do you find that your day is measured by how quickly and thoroughly you are getting these urgent things done? It seems as though just about everything on our plate today is urgent. Sometimes, that is because someone else has forgotten something or has handed you something to do at the last minute. Sometimes, it’s because I’ve forgotten something and now it’s the last minute! (Honesty hurts sometimes.)

So as we rush around our lives doing all of the urgent things that constantly pester us for attention, perhaps there is something else that we should consider as well: What are the important things that you will accomplish today? Restating this, is it always true that what is urgent is also important? Just because it appears that it needs to be completed right now, does that make it more important than other things? Or, are today’s problems and ‘urgent’ dashes the result of years of misplaced priorities?

Here’s what I mean by all these questions. I do think there is a difference between what is urgent and what is important. Sometimes the two overlap, sometimes they don’t. However, it’s always obvious to see what is ‘urgent’. Simply listen for a second or two. Listen to your own voice, telling you that these things have to be done. Listen to the voices of people around you, telling you the same thing…usually fairly loudly. However, of all these urgent things, which ones are truly important? That is a harder question to answer, because the voices calling attention to the important things on our plate are voices that we tend to ignore.

I’ve been reading a book lately entitled “Canoeing the Mountains” by Tod Bolsinger. It’s a great book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s struggling with adapting to the changing world around us. Rev. Bolsinger addresses the difference between urgency and importance in his book. He points out that the things that are important (and not just urgent) are the things on our “to do” plate that coincide with our passion, conviction, and mission. See how much easier it is to identify the urgent than it is the truly important? Just listen for a few minutes and it will be clear what needs to urgently get done. However, if we spend our time getting all of the urgent things done, it will be at the expense of the important. Not everything important has a loud voice crying out for attention. Not everything important shows up on our ‘to do’ lists. The important things are the ones that connect us to our passion. The important things are the ones that we would be the most committed to, if we had the time in between urgent things. The important things are why we have been placed on earth; they are our mission.

If you aren’t sure what your passion is, or what you have conviction about, or what your mission is, then I suggest you put figuring that out on your ‘to-do’ list and address it with urgency. If you work on that enough, over time, you’ll find that more and more of the urgent tasks will be accomplishments related to your passion, conviction, and mission. However, if you don’t know what those things are, you will forever be accomplishing urgent things, and only accidentally, if ever, accomplishing important things.

May the important things in your life be loud enough to get your attention.