This month in The Platform Builders mastermind group we are working our way through “The Power Of Urgency – Playing to Win with Proactive Urgency” by William Keiper. John Maxwell teaches that the greatest gap is the gap between what we know and what we do. I believe the Proactive Urgency that Keiper is talking about can close that gap.
In Part two of The Power of Urgency, Keiper takes a deep look into the idea of Playing to Win with The Power of Urgency.
“Your current state is a perfect reflection of your prior decisions.” – William Keiper (Tweet This / Post to LinkedIn)
In this, the final of three posts, I want to offer up Keiper’s thought provoking take on the idea of Proactive Urgency. Keiper ends each of the 17 chapters with an “Urgency Rule” and I want to highlight a few to set the frame for Part 2 of the book.
Urgency Rule #12 – A purposeful commitment to acting with pro-urgency is a sustained, continuously renewed promise manifested in your bold actions. This ongoing promise leaves no room for fakery, conformity or false consensus.
I love this quote from Keiper, “The path of least resistance will always be crowded with those who occupy half-numb, half-lived lives.” Commitment never follows the path of least resistance. Commitment will require you to step outside of your comfort zone and do the things you have never done before to become someone you have never been before.
Urgency Rule #14 – An initial decision, no matter how good, immediately becomes a prospect for an adaptive decision based upon new inputs. Be the best challenger of your own decisions.
How often do you challenge your own decisions? Be honest! In almost everything we do, we can do better. There are very few decisions that we make in life that would not benefit from asking these challenging questions:
- What do I need to start?
- What do I need to stop?
- What do I need to do more of?
- What do I need to do less of?
- What am I missing?
If we made better decisions and became just 1% more productive each week, we would increase our productivity by more that 50% every year.
Urgency Rule #17 – Proactive urgency is personal. If pursued with clarity and commitment, it will transform your work, your life and the lives of those around you.
There is that word clarity again. If you have heard me speak, you know how important I believe clarity is in everything we do. Lack of clarity brings confusion and lack of focus. Focus is what keeps you on the right path. Knowing where you are and where you are headed are the keys to getting there.
The question: Have you really committed to reaching your goals or are you still playing small and working through the path of least resistance?
The challenge: Choose a goal you are working towards and fully commit. If you are not struggling, you are not growing.
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Barry Smith 2/27/14 photo courtesy of amazon © Building What Matters 2014
