If you wait ‘til the last minute, does it only take a minute? Do you like procrastinating? Wait, let me re-phrase that. Do you procrastinate? Yeah, well, me too. Terrible habit, but one I find that I naturally fall into if I neglect to plan and stick to that plan. When I’m under the gun from procrastinating, I feel like I perform, I perform under pressure. Time is short and so I finally have a sense of urgency. But how do you generate a sense of urgency before it’s too late? How do you avoid letting complacency take over? Generating a sense of urgency and finding motivation is tough, hell, I’m having trouble motivating myself to get through writing this blog, it’s taken me weeks. Excuses are easy, distractions are plentiful, and watching sports is fun but utterly unproductive. These are just my current struggles, but first-world problems, right? Though, being a leader, having led other professionals, I know what “right” looks like and for me, reason must prevail – do your job! And plan to get it done.
"...one of the key points of resiliency – you are the sum of the five or six people you surround yourself with."
Complacency kills and time and space contribute to complacency, allow me to explain. You know those infomercials that try to sell you on a novel device that solves a problem, where you think, man why didn’t I think of that? Well, say one day, you suddenly have your eureka moment for such an idea, but it’s on a Sunday night. Stores are closed, so you can’t go buy the supplies needed to make your prototype. Then the work week starts and you are working 16 hour days pushing to bring a major project to a close. Suddenly, it Saturday, where you could peel away to work on your new novel idea but your daughter needs to go to her soccer game and your wife needs help picking out gifts for family and friends, being the holiday season and all. Damn, before you know it, it’s the start of the next long work week and you say, maybe I’ll get to it someday. Well, now you have just fallen into that cycle of complacency. This sort of experience is highlighted well in a book I like to recommend to folks called The Ugly American by Eugen Burdick and William J. Lederer. Though written in 1958, this collection of stories that comprise a larger tale is a great piece for learning about empathy and patience but additionally, it touches on the time and space idea regarding complacency. In one of the smaller stories, one Tom Knox visits Cambodia and after studying local agricultural techniques develops a novel idea to increase chicken and egg yields, much to the villagers’ delight. Unfortunately, this contrasted with American foreign policy machinations, which conspired to prevent him from implementing his idea. Though inspired to work toward the goal of implementing his idea nonetheless, a series of luxury trips provided to him by French diplomats and a wealthy landowner ultimately work to weaken his resolve and sense of urgency leading to him forgetting his idea, killing his idea. Don’t fall into Tom Knox’s trap. Time easily slips away and with little time left many would procrastinate or do nothing at all. Take action immediately by planning your steps and adhering to your plan.
So, I pride myself on being an internally motivated person. Upon further inspection (introspection) though, really what that so-called “internal motivation” is for me is the result I derive from one of the key points of resiliency – you are the sum of the five or six people you surround yourself with. I like to surround myself with other highly motivated, intelligent, and worthwhile people. From this crowd, I draw strength and desire to do “good” – really, to do well. But, like a shot of adrenaline, my motivation tends to fade when I can’t surround myself with my preferred crowd. Being a military guy, many of my closest friends ultimately find themselves far away through career progression and deployment, so, I find myself challenged to always have a sense of urgency about things, to fight off complacency. That said, I try to be creative in re-inventing my internal motivation. Looking elsewhere, I find that internal motivation in the context of being in charge of others. I want to breed unit and team member success, because I enjoy leading and mentorship plus, in the end, their success is my and the company’s success.
Back to this blog. I’m prone to procrastination; I like to characterize it by saying that I perform well under pressure. I found myself doing just that today, procrastinating, though, I managed to recover. I knew that I had to get down to business, but my seven-year-old daughter found a really cute movie that she invited me to watch with her, so I obliged. Similar to the being in charge idea, however, my daughter also motivates me, I want to do well to provide her with the greatest opportunities, plus she is fun. After watching the movie and spending some quality time with her, I felt re-charged and re-motivated to do what I had to do and here we are. My adaptability helped me to remain disciplined, a hallmark for any aspiring professional.
"Take pride in what you do, learn how to plan to keep your efforts on track, and find people to help keep you accountable to yourself."
I seek greater meaning in all things that I do. I could have just stopped at “watching the movie with my daughter was fun,” but I found more in the experience. I like working out too but as we all know, it can be difficult to get off your ass to do it at times. For this challenge, I like to think big picture – like this workout will help me get to where I need to be physically for the next mission, for instance. Sometimes it’s a timing issue and the only time is at odd hours. Well, then I have to draw strength from the audacity of the situation, thinking: I’m the only asshole, in a large radius, actually doing this!
Nothing only takes a minute. A plan takes time, setting conditions take time, and building momentum to generate urgency takes time. It may take a while to explore the collection of things centered around resiliency that help to motivate but you really only need one thing to spark the flame of urgency, so don’t despair. As you build momentum, look to wield more and more of these skills and attributes. Taking pride in what you do, learning how to plan to keep your efforts on track, and finding people to help keep you accountable to yourself would be a good start. Anything worth doing will be a challenge, do it with urgency.