Panic Vs. Urgency

In this corner we have the defeated champion of cowardice, the legendary sultan of sulking, the constant cornerstone of non-productive activity....YES, that is PANIC! In our other corner, coming in with a ravenous approach to lethargy and apathy, the fabulous fighter of the imbalance that comes from battling in the trenches or "going to the mattresses" ("Godfather" or "You've Got Mail" - take your pick) AND the loss of discipline, we have URGENCY!  

Urgency is needed to win in business, in  our personal lives, and sometimes in the relationships that make up both.  However, panic is like the distant cousin that is sometimes mistaken for its ugly twin.  They are actually much further apart than we would like to admit.  In the world of business, you have to distinguish between the two.  Your activity today should be urgent - a sense of urgency should be pulsing through you to get ahead of your competition, to learn, to reach one more client, to help one more person, but panic...well, panic just gets you moving but without direction.  Here is how you can distinguish and gain an edge:

1.  Urgency calls for one more quality call, but panic calls for you to make any call to anybody, regardless of whether they are the right call to make.

2. Urgency causes you to move quickly towards a specific goal, but panic causes you to move anywhere, and oftentimes off your target.

3.  Urgency causes you to close your door in order to block out an hour of activity to reach your goal - panic causes you to complain to your coworkers about how the goals you were given are unreasonable.  

4.  Urgency causes you to look in the mirror and ask "What will you accomplish NOW?", whereas panic causes you to look run and scream!

Be urgent in your life, in your activity, and with the time you have in your relationships, but please, don't panic.  It is quite unbecoming, and frankly, it repels the people you should have around you, and attracts those who are as panicked as you are.  

A NHL player was asked about whether they should panic at the point they found themselves in the season - here was his answer:

"The only difference between the two, and it’s a big difference, is control. You can play with urgency, and that’s something that we should try to play with every single game, but it has to be under control and it has to be according to our structure. In panic, I think of a team running around, guys doing other guys’ jobs, not paying attention, not being in the right position, not being mentally prepared, just trying to do everything by themselves. If we do that, then we’re just going to dig ourselves much deeper into a hole.”

The one still standing after the fight is NOT panic, but URGENCY!