How to Cultivate a Sense of Urgency and Pressure

if you feel like you're kind of stuck in life work your business you have a bunch of options a bunch of choices but you're not committing to any you feel like you could be working a lot harder you have no sense of urgency or pressure that's driving you and you kind of crave that then this video is for you we're going to be talking about how to cultivate that sense of urgency and pressure but we're going to start with the why why it is so important to cultivate the sense of urgency and pressure so that

we can really drill that into our heads the thing that took me way too long to realize is that there aren't many or perhaps any good arguments against cultivating an internal sense of urgency and pressure if you're stuck if you're stuck in this position if you're stuck in stasis you're directionless you have a low level feeling of anxiety because you feel like you could be doing so much more in fact you know you can be doing so much more because you have in the past but there are very good Arguments for cultivating this internal sense

of urgency and pressure the first is that urgency paradoxically produces great work there's a growing movement of people and I don't know where it comes from who think that your best work comes from a state of blissful carelessness and pure leisurely relaxation uh that any remnants of hustle culture will poison your creativity that you must actively try to be less busy and less stressed in order to do great work and there's some some truth to this there's some truth and that you can't really do great work when you're always doing a bunch of other random

tasks and if you're super stressed then you're probably not going to do it either but the idea that pressure is antithetical to creative work I think is just completely false I mean Martin Luther when he wrote his 95 thesis that caus a chain reaction leading to the world we have today I don't think he was working from a state of blissful carelessness I don't think he was relaxed I think he was under a lot of urgency pressure and also fear dooi one of the best writers of all time after getting sentenced to death and then

pardoned wrote with an intensity and urgency that few ever get to experience he lamented the time that he' wasted beforehand there's plenty more examples that I can list of people who have done amazing creative work with a sense of pressure and urgency and I don't think it's in spite of the pressure and urgency I think it's because of it because sophistication is born out of necessity of striving struggle urgency this is something I talked about in my last video on productivity Sprints that intensity and you know shortened deadlines can actually help you produce better work

urgency focuses our attention it gives us a kind of tunnel vision where we automatically filter out anything that is not relevant to our goal or the problem that we're trying to solve no need for decision trees or performative productivity hacks there's work to do this focused attention this tunnel vision is what leads to better work you're not jumping from one half completed project to another you're sitting down and you're sticking it out to the end you've metaphorically burned the ships you have to make it work because there's no going back and when you have to

make it work you make it work and you make it work well so urgency helps you produce better work but it also gives you a deep and Powerful energy and I think this is what most people crave they crave that feeling that aliveness that comes from having a sense of urgency in chapter four of Robert Green's book The 33 Strategies of War which directly Inspire this video he writes when we are tired it is often because we are bored when no real challenge faces us a mental and physical lethargy sets in and lack of energy

com from a lack of challenges take a risk and your body and mind will respond with a rush of energy so if you're lethargic if you are low energy you're stuck in stasis it might be because you have a vitamin deficiency or the health condition or it might simply be that you don't have challenges to produce energy for why hunt if you've got plenty of food your body wants to remain in homeostasis but on a spiritual level on emotional level you don't you want to escape that you crave the energy that comes from the hunt

from The Challenge from discomfort from pursuing those worthwhile goals so how do you change how do you cultivate a sense of urgency that drives you away from mediocrity and towards greatness let me share three tactics with you two of them are from Robert Green's book that I just mentioned the 33 strategies of war the first one is the no return tactic this is the burning the boats strategy when you don't have an Escape Route when you can't backtrack then you press forward with full determination and intensity green RS because you think you have options you

never involve yourself deeply enough in one thing to do it thoroughly and you never quite get what you want sometimes you need to run your ships ground burn them and leave yourself just one option succeed or go down make the burning of your ships as real as possible get rid of your safety net sometimes you have to become a little desperate to get anywhere so you must reduce your optionality whatever that looks like maybe it looks like quitting your job with 6 months of Runway that's one way to create a sense of urgency maybe it's

taking more risk that reduces your ability to just fall back to easier options when the going gets tough maybe it's making public commitments that if reversed would cause you to lose social status social standing you might not have ships to burn but there are probably things you can do to have more skin in the game and cultivate that sense of urgency and pressure and importance and seriousness the second is what green caus the death at your heels tactic I mentioned do joeski earlier he was at one point condemned to death before a firing squad this

story is in uh Green's book and just as he was about to be killed a messenger came the S had decided to let him live this new sentence was 4 years of hard labor followed by a stint in the Army on the day he received that sentence he wrote this to his brother when I look back at the past and think of all the time I squandered in error and idleness then my heart bleeds life is a gift every minute could have been an eternity of Happiness if youth only knew now my life will change

now now I will be reborn and from that day he worked with a sense of urgency and intensity like no other now we might not have the opportunity that doeski had to get that close to death and hopefully we don't but we can stop denying the reality of death it is going to happen to us and if meditating on that drives us into good useful action then it's probably worth doing a denial of death is what leads to half-heartedness laziness laugh of urgency and pressure it also leads to regret as green writes in the book

Society is organized to make death invisible to keep it several steps removed that distance may seem necessary for our comfort but it comes with a terrible price the illusion of Limitless time and the consequent lack of seriousness about daily life all right third tactic is to involve others when you're by yourself when you're working by yourself on something it's so easy to fall back into standard Behavior into your default mode of operating which if you're stuck in stasis if you've been procrastinating chronically for a long time it's that and the reason why is that you

think that no one else is affected by this other than you if you fall back into that mode of operating what's the big deal when you have other people keeping you accountable relying on you expecting something from you then you have a visceral sense of responsibility which drives you to action even when you don't feel like it this is why you see people's behavior change sometimes almost in an instant when they're pushed into situations where it's not just about themselves anymore where maybe they have their first child and they realize huh I actually have to

work like I can't just Mark around anymore or they're forced to take care of someone or they're you know they join a company or they start a business with a co-founder now I'm not suggesting that you go out and you find a co-founder and go start a business or you have a kid with the first person and you see but there are ways to involve others maybe it's getting an accountability partner maybe it's collaborating on a project with someone maybe it's joining the workprint cohort that I run where you spend two weeks focusing on a

single project daily accountability there's a high energy Community co-working sessions and so forth you check that out in the link below there's probably a way to set up an environment or situation where your actions matter Beyond just you so that is for this video to wrap up we looked at why urgency is important why it helps you do better work how it gives you a sense of deep you know powerful energy and then how to cultivate it with three tactics we looked at the nor return tactic the burning of your ships so you have to

do what's in front of you you remove the fullback option we looked at the death at your heels tactic meditating on your mortality taking things seriously and finally involving others so that you get a visual sense of your responsibility and how your action or inaction affects those around you I hope you enjoyed watching and remember if you want to join workprint we are running a cohort next month you can head to workprint doco or click the link in the description to learn more cheers