
STEP BACK FROM THE URGENCY (Another IPS)
Urgency, the repeated hammering on the direness of some situation or other that absolutely requires your personal immediate attention (or else), has become the go-to stance for so many of the professional and amateur persuaders in our lives these days.
They tell us that urgency is different than panic. Panic is a freak-out. You run around like a chicken without a head, not knowing where you are going, bumping into things and falling down a lot.
The proper response to urgency, they tell us, is supposed to be purposeful action, perseverance, and an empowered determination.
Right.

LET’S LOOK AT THE REAL
You can get a major dose of urgency about every issue there ever was every time you tune in to the various information channels and assorted media outlets – on the Internet, on television and the radio, and on the printed page. Continuous wake-up calls are sounding all around us.
You get them in casual conversations and serious discussions with the logic bullies and the passionately opinionated people in your life. Even your own Inner Crusader Rabbit is likely to have a go at you on any given day.
I stumbled across this cute YouTube video that is the first episode of “Crusader Rabbit,” the very first animated series produced specifically for television. The show starred a most idealistic little fixer-rabbit with big dreams and his sidekick Ragland T. Tiger (a.k.a. “Rags.”)
The pair made their debut in 1950 and the series ran for 195 episodes until 1951. The cartoon animation was created by Alexander Anderson and the show was put together by Jay Ward who went on later to create the long-running “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.”
The video was uploaded by candolex in 2006.
Back to the diatribe….
On top of all of the dizzy-making doom-mongering, there are also the mind-games marketers play to get you to pull out your wallet and buy, buy, buy. The games push buttons that trigger another sort of urgency — the possibility of missing out on something rare and really good unless you act now, now, now.
When everything is urgent, all the spazzing about it drowns out thoughts of what you yourself value and hold dear. How many purposeful and effective actions are you really going to be able to make in response to all of this when you can’t get two ideas to hang together right in your head?
There is also no shortage of inequities, injustices and suffering in the world that do need our attention. The who, how, what, and when that is needed to mitigate these situations are all open to endless, mind-boggling, time-wasting debates.
You can get lost in the discussions rather than just getting on and doing what you can to help.
ACK!

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN IT GETS TO BE TOO MUCH?
The ever-growing pile of accumulating urgencies has grown huge and it seems to be having a deleterious effect on us humans who are living in them. What do you do when you and everybody else around you are heading into a major case of overwhelm?
I know this is going to look sort of weird, but it seems to me that this 2019 National Geographic YouTube video, “’Zombie Parasite Takes Over Insects Through Mind Control” is an analog for the way all the accumulated mass of “urgency” live-streaming through our lives affect us.
The video is part of National Geo’s “Hostile Planet” series hosted by Bear Grylls.
The musings and blatherings of the urgency mongers seem to me to be like the spores of the featured parasitic cordyceps fungi that take down ants and other insects in order to reproduce.
All the endless Urgents piled up all around us and on top of us seem to be having a similar effect on us humans as the growing spores of the fungi have on the ant in the video. We seem to be turning into vehicles for the Urgents that are conquering the world.
This is not a happy picture.
BACK TO BASICS
These days we’ve even got scientists and other guys and gals in lab coats studying resilience and other responses to rapidly moving change and lots and lots more advice about coping with the anxieties these transitions and transformations engender.
The biggest bit of advice common among all of these wise guys and smarty pants boil down to the same basic things:
- Step back.
- Take a breath.
- See where you are and look towards where you are wanting to go.
- Feel your feelings and think on it all using your powers of research, focus and analysis.
- Figure out what you’re going to do next.
- Go do that.
One particularly lovely book about standing back and assessing where you are so you can make effective responses to all the sturm und drang came out in 2019. Jenny Odell’s best selling book HOW TO DO NOTHING: Resisting the Attention Economy reminds us that we do already know what we need to do in times like these.
Odell is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer and educator based in Oakland, California. She has taught Internet art and real-world design at Standford University since 2013. One commenter says the lady’s fascinated by the in-between transitional spaces that happen in our everyday lives when things really start to change all around us.
Her book shares her thoughts about her own journeys through these spaces and she brings her artist’s eye and thoughts and feelings upfront and center so we can put together our own takes on whatever is going on around us.
Here’s a newsflash for you: Plans don’t come easy in the middle of a hurricane. You can’t control the weather, but you do have the ability to control your responses to it if you can get yourself away from all the whoot-whoot-whoot blaring and the images brought to you by your friendly neighborhood doom-sayers.
Odell’s book might be a good place to start to work on making the space you need to get to your own kind of strategic planning.

ANOTHER IPS (Inner Peace Symptom): an understanding that the tumult and turmoil of an “urgent” situation may actually be somebody else’s attempt to rearrange your priority list or it might be a filler story for a No-Big-News day. [Step back and look at the whole glorious mess in all of its nuance and emotional hoo-hah. Give yourself room to think on the best way to maintain your own smooth running.]
Here’s a poem:
PROTECTING THE COLLATERAL
Two warrior-chieftains square off,
Revving up their steam-roller engines
That scream out challenges, strong and fierce,
As each one stakes out their territory.
Blare of trumpets, beat of drums
Boom-ba-da-boom, boom-ba-da-boom.
Cue the skirling of the pipes.
Start the thrill of fifes.
They are not noticing the collateral damage
In their fierce drive for victory –
One over the other.
I am.
They do not see her distress,
Too caught up in their own imperatives
And “shoulds” and “musts” to see the gentle one
Tearing apart like tissue-thin paper
Melting in the rain.
I do.
It makes me strong, that –
Me in the middle of these titans with
My Teflon shield held high.
I keep my sword sheathed, though.
Swords don’t help in the middle of
Threats and counter-threats of
Weapons of mass destruction being deployed.
I am watching.
She has turned into a puddle of tears,
And my heart goes out to her.
This other stuff’s just rubbish:
A fire-fight between two passionate ones
With exactly the same goal,
Arguing about how to get there and
Throwing their armies behind their words.
I am seeing her trying to understand,
Trying to grab and hold onto
The peaceable harmony the warring beasts
Have thrown out the window with
All their stupid shouting.
I roar my own self,
Backing the titans off each other in shock,
And I drop to my knees and hold her strong
So she can bring herself back
Out of the hopelessness and despair
Into which she has fallen.
She is so strong, this one.
She just needs a stopping place,
A little time and space to pull herself
Back together.
And as the useless battle-idiocy subsides,
I am pleased that I can see her
Coming back to herself.
The battle will end,
But she is not broken.
A good thing.
Warriors forget
When they are in the middle of
All their guts-and-glory puissant posturing
That there are gentle ones crying in their storm.
I won’t.
By Netta Kanoho
Header photo credit: “Frenzy” by Oblivious Dude via Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]
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SOME OTHER POSTS TO EXPLORE
(Click on each of the post titles below and see where it takes you….)
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Thanks for your visit. I’d appreciate it if you would drop a note or comment below and tell me your thoughts.
10 thoughts on “STEP BACK FROM THE URGENCY (Another IPS)”
How you touched a soft spot with your article! I think everyone should take 10 minutes and read it , then stop and think everything through!
It is true we are lost in a sea of urgent actions , need to do’s , have to do’s , don’t forget to do’s! It’s not just us as adults; our kids are also drowning in everything that pulls them in a 100 different parts and needs their attention constantly!
It is a problem. People can get lost , can get overwhelmed and not find their way out anymore! We forget to enjoy things while we get them done because we constantly have to think about the next thing and the next one and we do not know how to live in the moment anymore!
I do believe most of us are aware or were aware at some point that we are getting lost and this shows from all the attention we give to those people that managed to disconnect from this race to get things done and managed to slow down and enjoy the view!
Loved your thoughts and I think everyone needs more of this….
Keep up the great work
Oh and by the way I might just pick up the book you suggested! Might actually help me step back and live life for a few minutes!
Alex, I do thank you for your visit and for sharing your thoughts. You’ve expanded on my own observations beautifully.
Please do come again.
You described the situation in the world very well. The most important thing is to stay calm. Then better decisions are made.
Rushing is not good for several reasons. First, there is a greater possibility of making mistakes. Second, that way we don’t have time to reconsider our decisions. Third, we don’t enjoy life in a hurry.
We all have a choice. Man was born to be happy.
Thanks for the visit and for sharing your thoughts, me278. I do agree with you!
Please do come again.
Wow, Your blog post struck a note and made me sit back and take a couple of deep breaths. It is almost as if your post was taken right out of my mind and my own thoughts.
I have a motto, which is a tagline on my website as well “Keep It Simple – Hurry Slowly”. I think it speaks for itself.
In our society today we are so eager to be everywhere at once, being tricked into this habit, unable to pull ourselves away from all the noise all over.
We are more focused on what is on our small mobile phone screens than what is actually going on with and around the world
To admit and do something about the habit of being connected 24/7 and rushing things just to rush it is a sorely missing skill. I think it comes down to the factor that the idea of change is scary for people in general. We will rather run off the cliff than change.
Your blog post is an awesome piece of writing. I loved every bit of it, and have saved it to my bookmarks. The poem was magnificent too.
I will make sure to share it so a lot of others can read it to. And hopefully wake up and take action to change.
kind regards,
Roy
Roy, thank you for your visit and for sharing your thoughts…and this post. I do appreciate it.
Please do come again.
This article is filled with many like-minded responses I would agree with.
My favourite mention is that of “take a step back” and re-approach from a different angle.
It really does matter how how you percieve that sense of urgency and adapt to a decision in any form of chaos. Personally, i’ve tuned out as much media over the last 5 years, and even still I can’t consume certain “urgent matter” ads that pop – up on my computer screen.
It’s a marketing ploy in my opinion, and the best way to turn it off is to be in nature.
Thanks for the read! I thouroughly enjoyed it.
Jeremy, thank you for the visit and for sharing your thoughts. I do appreciate it and am really pleased the post resonated with you.
(I do agree with you that being in nature really is a good antidote to the generated urgency trap.)
Please do come again.
This article brings up an important topic of how the constant bombardment of urgent messages and calls to action can impact our ability to think and act effectively.
As someone who works in a fast-paced environment, I can relate to feeling overwhelmed by the sense of urgency that is often present.
However, I have found that taking a step back and assessing the situation before reacting has been helpful in making more purposeful decisions.
I wonder if there are any other strategies or techniques that people use to manage urgency in their personal or professional lives? It would be interesting to discuss this further and learn from each other’s experiences.
Akumendoh, thanks for your questions. Right now I’m in the middle of working on a series of posts about the Time thought-construct, the various ways we humans perceive it, and how the way we look at Time affects the way we live in our consensus-world and in our own inner worlds as well.
It has been most fascinating. (It’s also such a huge topic that I’m still working my way through exploring various aspects that get caught on my messy mind.)
This latest series began with a post titled “Time as a Shaping Tool (An Overview)“. The posts after that one are all dancing around waving my time thoughts. I’m not sure how many of the things I’m going to be making, but I do know that they just keep showing up and I keep on writing about them.
Maybe you might want to enter “time” in the search box on this thing and check out what is already there.
Please do come again.