Use This Difficult Constraint To Your Advantage
Use This Difficult Constraint To Your Advantage
By chris danilo on Jul 25, 2018 05:02 am
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I was reminded, yesterday, of the life changing effect of urgency.
You know the feeling, it’s FOMO.
Buy now, only 43 left!
Limited Edition only available for the next 24 hours!
Order in the next 15 minutes and we’ll throw in the Chop Chopper and the Double Chop Chopper free!
You’ve seen all of these before.
But why?
It’s not because there was an error at the factory and only 50 units were made.
And it’s not because the limited edition models will expire and be in some violation of FDA regulation.
They can make more units. They can expand the sale.
The punchline?
When things are important AND urgent, we take action.
When things are important and NOT urgent, we mere humans are pretty inconsistent and bad at taking action.
I’m not just talking about buying behavior.
I’m talking about just about every other aspect of life.
Its important to exercise, sure, we can agree on that. But since our bodies aren’t falling apart, it’s not urgent enough for us to have the motivation to go to the gym.
It’s easier to just go tomorrow, when you’ll be more motivated.
It’s important to take your car in for a checkup, but if nothing is broken, why bother spending the money to bring it in?
It’s important to us to learn that new language, but since we’re not going to travel for another 9 months, we can start practicing next week when we’re less busy.
You can see where I’m going with this.
Action often requires both importance and urgency, but especially urgency.
Understand that you have a lot of control over the urgency part. It’s a seriously useful tool.
You have the choice to use it to your advantage!
2 Minute Action:
What’s something you’ve been meaning to do?
How can you add urgency?
Here are some examples:
Schedule a 5k run with a friend. Put a simple, weekly training schedule together and tell them not to let you off the hook.
Place a “reverse bet.” Write a check to a trustworthy friend for $1,000. If you bail on your goal/deadline, tell them they are allowed to cash the check.
Carve out a block of time on your calendar for that project you want to finish. Let it be sacred and schedule other things around it.
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