Friends of Dave #344: danger's my middle name
Urgency is a conscious choice.
Quick trivia question:
In the 1997 movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, what did Austin Powers say was his middle name?
Friends, fear not. No need to Google or ask Alexa. If you hadn’t guessed, this is a simple literary device to get the conversation started.
Of course, the answer is in the subject line of this email.
It is DANGER. Danger is his middle name.
Sorry Friends under 40….no trophies will be awarded to you for getting it right.
Sticking with this line of thinking, another question for you:
What is YOUR “middle name”?
Now, let’s not be literal. Of course you know what your middle name is.
Stop and think about it — when are really honest with yourself, what word do you think describes you most accurately?
Me? URGENCY is my middle name…..oh, behave….
Regular FODs have seen me write about the topic of urgency before, usually as it pertains to my theory in how critical it is in developing a growth culture.
But, when I really think about it, having and creating a sense of urgency or hustle has always been big part of who I am.
I have been told stories about how on the day I learned to walk, I also began to run. Like Forrest Gump, from that day on, if I was going somewhere, I was RUN-ning.
I have the bumps, bruises and multiple scars to prove it. Over the course of my life I have run and fallen down stairs, into walls, into fences, into poison ivy, into large people on sports fields, into life decisions, into good deals, into bad deals, into personal and business success and chaos. I have even completed two marathons and one half Ironman triathlon along the way as well.
Mind you, none of this is because I like to run. I don’t particularly like it. But, for some reason, despite all of my scars, I do habitually choose to be urgent. I know it can be pretty exhausting to all of those around me — mainly because, as I get older, I see how exhausting it is to me.
And what I have learned is that being urgent is definitely a conscious choice. It doesn’t mean that you are the fastest, most talented, or that you need to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
Being urgent is making the choice to do something right now instead of waiting until later because you believe, by doing so, that the outcome will be more valuable.
When I think about it, I guess I have always inherently believed that doing something right now is more valuable than if I waited. I think I also must find comfort in the feeling of control over time and tempo that creating urgency gives me.
Being urgent means you have the ability to see more. You have the ability to learn more. You have the ability to do more. You have the ability to achieve more. And you can do all of this at a pace you set — because it is impossible for anyone else to make you be more urgent than you choose to make yourself.
Now urgency is not without it’s downsides or risks. Again, it can be really exhausting. It creates friction, which is uncomfortable for most people. It means information often needs to be processed at a quickened pace — which makes one prone to mistakes. It makes accountability even more critical.
Urgency is impatient — which, funny enough, can also make “danger” IT’S middle name. So if you don’t like a little danger every now and then, well, you won’t like urgency.
So what’s the point of all of this, Friends?
Sometimes it is good to ask yourself: what is YOUR middle name?
Maybe it’s URGENCY as well. Perhaps it’s something else.
But, whatever it is, why is it that way? Why has it always been that way? How does that impact your life and those around you?
For what it is worth, I suggest you try to understand this sooner rather than later — as we have discussed here before, a little self awareness can go a long way.
Something tells me it will be a lot more valuable to do it now than if you wait….😉
XOXO
Dave
And now some things to make you smarter…
The idea that we should eat three meals a day is surprisingly modern. How many meals a day is best for our health?
Life shouldn’t be so rigid and boring. It should be diverse and fulfilling; it should be fun. We should be wary of those trying to convince us that anything less is the best the world has to offer.
Doing well in what many are calling “the year of efficiency” means finding creative ways to do more with less. If you are in sales and marketing, you are going to want to check out this deep dive into how you can adjust your teams to achieve more.
From a distance, at least, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the way Americans got their telephone numbers. And it’s becoming even less clear thanks to the increasing sophistication of the phone technologies we use. Here’s a fascinating look behind why you have the phone number you do.
Recent data on unruly passenger conduct shows airlines are still dealing with high levels of bad behavior in the skies, long after mask mandates and other contentious policies have gone away.