Imagine a potbellied, nervous, cigarette-smoking salesman, pacing back and forth in front of his office building. He’s annoyed to be outside, but they won’t let him smoke inside. He’s puffing as hard as he can, anxious about getting back to work.
This guy is focused on solving the urgent problems in his life. And all those problems are about today . He is not focused one bit on losing weight or giving up cigarettes or understanding how tense he is. He figures there will be time for that later.
Right now, he needs to panic about the sales numbers that are due tomorrow. He’ll have time to panic about his health when he’s in the hospital having bypass surgery.
The time to panic about his health is right now, of course, while he can still do something about it. Taking action today on a long-term problem is easier, cheaper, more effective, and far less time consuming than waiting for it to become an emergency.
The time to panic about his health is today. The time to panic about the sales numbers was last week.
Why not start panicking in advance? Why not start taking emergency measures while there’s still a chance that those emergency measures will actually accomplish something?
Every organisation that gets into trouble falters because it waited too long to do the stuff that should have been done a long time ago. Panic early, not late…
- From The Big Moo (edited by Seth Godin)
On a completely related note…
My major research report is due on October 31. In a vain attempt to preserve some form of sanity during the month of October my new strategy is to panic…now. Inappropriate? Yes Effective? Hopefully. The time to panic about honours is not October 20, or even October 1. The time to panic about honours is today!
Who am I interviewing??? PANIC
What if they say no??? PANIC
If they do say yes, what will I ask them??? PANIC
Oh wow they talked for a really long time, when will I transcribe all this???? PANIC
God, ok so now it’s done but how do I put this writing???? PANIC
Oh no writers block!!!! PANIC
OK yes it’s written but it looks less than awesome!!! PANIC
What will my report look like??? PANIC
Is this professional enough to hand to a perspective employer??? PANIC
Uh-oh I can’t afford a designer!!! PANIC
July 25, 2008 at 12:11 |
interesting, good to see, thanks