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"I believe the fires of greatness
in our hearts can be kept aglow only after we develop a
sense of urgency and importance of what we are
doing. I mean a sense of urgency to the extent that we
feel it is a matter of life and death; and it is a
matter of life and death, for in
growing we are alive and in quitting we are dying in a
sense. If you don't believe this, talk to anyone who has
lost the sense of urgency of
getting things done and has been drifting in
complacency, mediocrity and failure. If you are without
a sense of urgency in your work, you know
what I mean. A sense of urgency is that feeling that lets
you know yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow never
comes. Today is in your hands.
It lets you know that shirking today's task will add to
wasted yesterdays and postponing today's work will add
to tomorrow's burden."
A Sense of Urgency!
an essential trait to get things done on time
Author: unknown
If you could add one personality trait to improve
yourself, what would you choose? Courage? Wisdom?
Enthusiasm? Confidence? We could go on and on and still
probably miss the one you might choose.
I heard a speaker say it
was important to be inspired but still more important to
have the desire, the will to want to. I most heartily
agree
with him.
I also like Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's six-point success
formula: 1) Work. 2) Work. 3) Work. 4) Forget Self. 5)
Set Goals; and 6) Get along
with others.
We've all heard many, many formulas and they all will
work if we will. Most are ready to accept these success
formulas but for some reason
never get them into high gear. You've noticed many who
have great potential and every reason to be tremendously
successful, but nothing
seems to happen.
What is it that chains so many of us to the pit of
mediocrity? What is it that dampens the fires of
greatness that are lit so many times in our
hearts?
I believe the fires of greatness in our hearts can be
kept aglow only after we develop a sense of urgency and
importance of what we are doing.
I mean a sense of urgency to the extent that we feel it
is a matter of life and death; and it is a matter of
life and death, for in growing we
are alive and in quitting we are dying in a sense.
If you don't believe this, talk to anyone who has lost
the sense of urgency of getting things done and has been
drifting in complacency,
mediocrity and failure. If you are without a sense of
urgency in your work, you know what I mean. A sense of
urgency is that feeling that lets
you know yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow never
comes. Today is in your hands. It lets you know that
shirking today's task will add to
wasted yesterdays and postponing today's work will add
to tomorrow's burden.
The sense of urgency causes you to accomplish what today
sets before you. Thank God for the sense of urgency that
can change a dull shabby
job into a sparkling career. While this may not be the
complete solution, I think we can all agree this will be
a tremendous step in the
right direction. Right now, ask God to give you a sense
of urgency in your work. Believe that He did, and then
act accordingly.
To help our sense of urgency help us, let's look at
seven "tremendous" laws of leadership and follow that up
with an examination of two
important qualities -- discipline and loyalty.
1. Learning to Put Excitement In Your Work:
Why is it that some people work and work, and never have
anything to show for it? And others do less and
accomplish more? The secret is
learning to put excitement in your work.
If I 'm not learning to get excited about what I don't
like, I'll never get much to be excited about that I do
like. Everybody looks for "the
right job." Sometimes, you'll hear "I'm looking for a
job that fits me." I say, "I hope you get something
better than that." We need to be
learning that no job can make you, but anyone that can
put excitement into their work can make a job.
2. Use or Lose:
There's a law that says we all have certain attributes,
characteristics, and talents. If you use what you have,
you'll get more; but if you don't
use it, you'll lose it."
One night, as I was coming out of a seminar, a person
asked do you think it's possible to be excited about
their business, be thrilled and successful, and then,
three years later, be sick and sorry they ever heard of
the whole business? Here's a perfect example of one who
doesn't
know the law of Use or Lose.
Once he was in his glory, using all the talents he had.
As a result, he was successful. But one morning, because
he wasn't using what he had, he
began losing it. And one morning he woke up and asked,
"What went wrong? Who let me down?"
The answer is that nobody let him down. Nothing went
wrong. Because he wasn't using what he had, he was
losing it. And the people who lose it
always blame somebody else. Remember nobody is ever a
failure until they blame someone else.
*3. Give to Get: *
Leadership is learning to give whether or not you get
anything in return. If you ever give to get something,
you're not giving; you're
trading. And there's a big difference between giving and
trading.
If a person gives whether or not they get anything in
return, then they are learning to give. If you give
whether or not you get anything, you
get a greater capacity to give more, whether or not you
get anything in return.
And out of this begins to develop a reservoir of reserve
and readiness that becomes a tremendous asset. You can
lose your reputation, you can
lose your home, you can even lose your family, but you
can't lose your capacity to give once you've begun to
live this law.
*4. Production to Perfection: *
Someone will say, "I'm a perfectionist. I believe in
doing everything perfectly, and if I can't do it
perfectly, I won't do it." That's the
person who never does anything.
There's a law that says if you're not learning to make
something happen today you'll never know more than your
own whimsical, shallow dreams.
Production will teach you a little about perfection, but
perfection will never be more than your own fantasy.
*5. Exposure to Experience: *
In the beginning of life, God gives everybody an
imaginary key ring. Every time a person exposes himself
or herself to another situation they
get another key of experience for their key ring. Soon,
the key ring begins to fill with thousands and millions
of keys of experience.
As a person gets exposure and experience, they get to
use the same keys over and over again. The law of
exposure to experience gets better with
the years. Finally, a person gets to know which keys
unlock which doors, while the inexperienced don't know
if they have a key. All they can do
is fumble around and hope to add another key of
experience to their key ring.
*6. Flexible Planning:*
This is the age of the planner. Everybody's planning,
planning, planning. Don't ever tell anyone that planning
will do it. I believe you have to have a plan to exist,
but the real law is not Planning; it's Flexible
Planning.
Flexible planning says, "Plan on it going wrong." You
say what if it goes right? We will just have to work it
in. Growing is learning that
nothing ever goes wrong except to make you more right.
*7. Motivated to Motivating: *
Which would you rather be: a miserable motivator or a
happy motivated flop? I would rather be a happy,
motivated flop, because if I can be
motivated long enough, I'll get to be motivating, and if
I can be motivated long enough, I'll eventually become a
motivator.
And I'll get to enjoy what I get. That's not the case
with the person who has learned to motivate everybody
but themselves. Our problem isn't
motivating them, but keeping them from de-motivating me.
The motivation will flow when you are totally committed
and involved.
*Discipline & Loyalty: *
We live in a world where these two great words --
discipline and loyalty are becoming meaningless. Does
this mean that they are worthless? On the
contrary, they are becoming priceless qualities because
they are so hard to develop in the first place.
And should you be one of the fortunate few who by God's
grace have caught the vision, your battle has just begun
because the greatest
battle is to keep what you've learned through these two
priceless qualities.
Discipline is that great quality that few people use
that enables them to be constructively busy all the
time. Even in discouragement and
defeat, discipline will rescue you and usher you to a
new place to keep constructively busy while you forget
about doubt, worry and self-pity.
Oh, that more men and women in this day would realize
the absolute necessity of discipline and the degree of
growth and happiness to be
attained from it.
Most people think that loyalty is to a thing or to a
person when actually it is really to one's own self.
Some think that it is to a goal
or an objective, but again it is to one's own
convictions.
If loyalty has to be earned then it is deserved and is
hardly more than devoted emotion based on a temporary
feeling. No, loyalty is the
character of a person who has given himself to the task
before him and he will always realize that out of a
loyal heart will spring all the
other virtues that make life one of depth and growth.
courtesy: Muslim Bhanji, UK
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