Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

This is urgent. Is it?

adjective: urgent

(of a state or situation) requiring immediate action or attention.

Immediate attention. Do it right now!

That is a relative statement. Someone else tells me, “Do it before doing these other things on this list that someone has created. I deem this more important than those.”

Ah, now we are getting somewhere. This is about the other person and their perspective on the world. And they have decided what I should do, now.

I have a different perspective. I have a different list.

If my salary depends on me doing what the other person says, and this item isn’t going to betray my ethics or in some way ruin my life, then okay, I will do this thing first, right now.

Otherwise, I will act from my perspective and choose what I believe to be important or urgent.