A sense of urgency.
We all have it depending on what we feel is important in our lives. If we don’t feel the payoff in a particular area is worth the effort then this thing called the sense of urgency will be non-existent.
But what I find to be the saddest aspect of all on this subject is that many of us have a sense of urgency to do all of the wrong things that will not bring us a positive return in our lives.
We seem to be hellbent on self destruction in our choices to go after the carnal endeavors that will bring an immediate rush of pseudo satisfaction but we won’t budge when it comes to having that same drive toward something that is ultimately positive that may not have an obviously instant rush of pleasure.
But this is our problem, we crave great success and we “claim” to desire an improved life but we are not willing to execute any action toward those thoughts which will always remain that dusty crumpled blueprint in the back of our mind until we take action!
Too many of us posture impressively and are the great dreamers, but as soon as it becomes apparent that the dream can really become a reality accompanied with some hard work, we seem to shy away from it with just as much intensity as we should have in running toward it!
I’ve heard many people in the past say that they work hard and play hard. But in actuality they only seem to play hard and probably do very little work toward a goal at all and if they do work toward anything it’s going to be that they are working for an eventual unemployment check sue to the fact that they only do just enough to get by on their “jobs.”
You can almost hear those slothful men speak the positive rhetoric to their enabling women like a jackleg storefront preacher whose ministry will only remain in existence just long enough to fleece the flock of their last resources before shutting down the operations and moving on to the next unsuspecting hick town that will embrace this smooth talking fraud with open arms and blank checkbooks…….”Baby we are going to make it this time! Give me a year and we are going to be rolling pretty in that new Cadillac that I am going to drop straight cash to buy just for you! But in the meantime baby can I get 50 dollars out of the rent money? I promise I will put it back by next week!”
Now while that sounds so wonderful and could very well be a reality very soon there is one crucial component that I missed in the “sweet nothing” whispered to his “soon to be late” on the full rent mate.
What I didn’t hear from this dreamy spinmaster is the fact that he didn’t offer up any structured plan where he would put in the hard work and sacrifice in measured attainable increments in order to get that Cadillac for his woman! Which, I feel would be the stupidest thing that any needy person of the working poor could do at this point with the world economy as shaky and unstable as it is.
It’s a mentality that supports my point that most of us have that sense of urgency only for the fun things or pleasurable indulgences.
Look at any crowd of people on the weekends at the shopping mall, moving about like mindless zombies in search of the next sensory experience to numb them from the perceived stresses of the world.
Many don’t understand that our carnal lusts actually kill our drive to accomplish anything. The more we indulge in any activity that is not edifying and pure in God’s eyes, the more our inate “stores” of motivation are dwindled into an eventual nothingness. Therefore, when you find yourself lacking the drive to achieve your goals (You must have goals in the first place to focus that energy on!) then you must check yourself and your life to see where the energy leaks are coming from.
And while it may not always be this particular reason as to why we are drained of our sense of righteous urgency, I am still willing to bet that there is something that we can delete from our lives to improve our chances of jumpstarting our spirit.
I remember way back when growing up in south side Queens New York, there was a hard working gentleman who immigrated from Puerto Rico who had the dream when he was younger to open up a local grocery here in the United States who worked hard on other multiple jobs and made good on his promise to his family that he would succeed within a certain time period. The dream became a reality because he had that sense of urgency to work his plan day and night making great sacrifices along the way in order to one day taste the fruits of his labor.
I used to always go to his store and from what I see he was a very kind and understanding man, I noticed that while he was an astute businessman who was meticulous in how he ran his store and always seemed to be writing something down for his record keeping (Remember, this was before the computer era!), he also worked along with the community and would allow many regulars to get their groceries without any money and would pay him when their payday would come!
This is why the neighborhood love him so much because he wasn’t merely there to make a buck but he was there to provide a service while becoming a valuable component that truly saturated the community that he served.
So you are probably saying to yourself, what does this have to do with having a sense of urgency?
Well let me continue and I will show you why!
This gentleman (To whom I couldn’t even tell you his name because I was a little boy too young to remember when he was in the neighborhood with his store!) had a huge problem with these grown men who didn’t work anywhere who would hang out in front of his store from BEFORE he would open up early in the morning until AFTER he closed down for the day late at night.
The men who stood up in front of his store all day and night were not necessarily criminals or bad people who would actually do harm to anyone as they were people who grew up in the neighborhood and were well known by everyone. But they would oftentimes get a bit too loud after consuming beer after beer if not hardcore liquor.
They would also beg for money for beer, cigarettes and liquor to anyone would was coming out of the store or whoever seemed to be passing by. Many felt threatened and intimidated by having to deal with this every time they wanted to patronize this good mans store.
So it just wasn’t a good look for the business as any new customers who might have desired to stop by to make a purchase would probably opt for another choice because of the image that these hooligans presented.
After speaking with these do-nothings about the effect that their goonish presence brought to his now ailing establishment, thy seemed to understand what he meant while he spoke with them, but it would be a matter of only a day or two before they would once again take position in front of his store as though it were some type of mandatory post that they absolutely just had to cover!
It was frustrating to our store owner indeed! And while others had suggested that he should just go and call the cops to end the frustrations that came about from this unwanted proximity with these clowns, he understood that in a community you will have this element and did not want to create any animosity between him and the family of these Man-Bums, so he thought long and hard on what would be a more peaceful solution as opposed to one that was so confrontational.
Since coming to the United States and working on countless jobs with the fire of his personal motivation burning deep within his soul, he learned so many lessons on the inner workings of human nature. These lessons would become valuable to him in life as he has learned how to navigate many various personality types and get along with just about anyone.
So the answer to his dilemma arrived to his mind in swift fashion.
Days later, as many of his regular customers returned happily to do business with the man who now had a grocery store free of loiterers, beggars and winos, he was asked time and time again what was it that he did to stop those Man-Bums from setting up camp in front of his store.
Being the down to earth humble man that he was, he didn’t desire to receive any credit for something that he thought was just common knowledge into the human psyche. But he did reveal what action it was that he executed that was so effective in clearing away what definitely had become a neighborhood eyesore.
He said that he noticed that these men obviously were not motivated to hold down a job as they had all day long to spend in front of his establishment. This was the character flaw that he saw that he could exploit to get the desired result that he needed without creating any enemies or coming across like the bad guy.
What he did toward the end of a busy day was that he approached these slothful men in a friendly manner asking them for their help. Help? What could these poor examples of manhood do for this accomplished man of business? Literally nothing. But he knew this and turned it around on them. What he told them was that he was receiving plenty of fines from the city stating that there was lots of garbage on the sidewalk in front of his store (Which was true, it was them!) and if he could get them to help him keep it clean as well as a few other things that needed to be down around his place. He also threw in the fact that he would pay all of them well if they did a great job plus free beer as they needed it!
He said that this was to start the very next morning at eight o’clock when he opened the store for business. He didn’t feel that this was too early for them to be there because they would get up very early and usually arrive to the front of his store long before he got there to beg the people who were going to work for chump change to purchase beer, wine and cigarettes later on that day.
He arrived the next morning a little earlier than usual at seven thirty to see if his assumption was correct.
He saw no one there. Fine.
Thirty minutes later he waited by the front door as he unlocked it for the arrival of his customers and still, his usual posse of beggars were nowhere to be found!
Eight thirty. Nine. Ten. NOON! Still NO ONE!
He seemed to get rid of the bums for good!
His approach worked excellently and the whole entire neighborhood viewed him as a great guy and there was absolutely no animosity from anyone in the neighborhood toward him and even the bums that didn’t come back held him in the highest regards whenever anyone asked why they stopped hanging out in front of his store!
But like I stated earlier before in this blog article, he KNEW about the inner workings of human nature and he knew that since these men had NO sense of urgency to move toward a righteous goal with any sense of purpose he knew that they would disappear into the wind when they had a task at hand where they were now would be held accountable for an area in their lives where once there was none! He knew that because he presented himself as one who was not an enabler but one who would help to empower someone, that they would not want to have anything to do with that perception and mindset.
So they would rather get a free ride on another corner in front of another store rather than get paid as men and also get the perks of what they were standing out there in the street for every single day of the week rain or shine without FAIL!
So you see, many of us will be there in life when we can benefit off of the sweat of another man’s labor, but if WE had to depend on our own sense of urgency to survive, many of us would perish in no time flat!
It’s easier to grab a slab of cake and sit down in front of the television than it is to eat right and make the sacrifice to get up and go to the gym!
It’s easier for us to go out and pick up and easy low class wayward chick for some quick sex than it is to take the time to commit in a dedicated exclusive relationship where we would have to deal with real responsibility as well as the ups and downs of a total commitment!
It’s easier to plop out baby after baby knowing that they State will pay for your housing, health care, childcare and nutritional needs off of the back of the taxpayers than it would be to keep your thighs closed, stay in school to learn something to be responsible in order to not be a burden on the community to which you ad nothing to except to being a damn hoochie mama liability!
The world is just TOO full of those who are lacking the necessary inner propulsion to move forward with a positive trajectory to make something happen!
Do something! Strive for something. Anything! Make history! we all have the capability to make Heaven on earth a reality but we are too damn busy being plugged in to a system that drains us of our independent thought and God given ingenuity! Yet we will always have the energy to wallow in filth and immerse ourselves in the indulges of the lower desires!
…….and while I’m so very tired and weary of telling the dumbed down masses of people that we should wake up, I have come to realize that some of us will NEVER wake up! Does every boxer win a championship? No! Does everyone who sings win a Grammy? No! Is every scholar destined to be an Einstein? NO! Does every sperm shot out in a reaction to the overwhelming pleasure of orgasm hit the egg? No! So while you might not ever hear me say the term WAKE UP anymore alone by itself, what you will hear me say now is that you must “WAKE UP OR DIE! It’s as simple as that!
Get on your grind or get out of my way!
I don’t know about you but I have some history to make because I was blessed with a sense of urgency that has me running through this life ON FIRE!
…….and if you can’t understand that then there might be something that you need to examine within yourself to correct and troubleshoot!
