The Connection Between Creativity and a Sense of Urgency

high sense of urgency

high sense of urgency

There’s a surprising connection between moving with a sense of urgency and creativity or flow. I learned this as I practiced moving more quicker throughout my days.

It all started with a life-changing lesson from one of my favorite role models, Ed Mylett: he always emphasizes the importance of moving fast.

He created a process where he has short days. Instead of 24-hour days, his are only 6 hours long—and in each “day”, he packs in as much productivity, memories, and value as possible.

Can you imagine what difference this could make in your life?

When I started living life with a sense of urgency, I had no choice but to live intentionally. I began to truly value my time and decisions.

This sparked so much momentum to move in a positive direction. It changed the dynamic of my life.

Urgency encourages movement and breaks us out of stagnancy—I’m going to explain why moving with a sense of urgency is so important for leveling up and provide effective tips to help put you in this state more often.

The Connection Between Creativity and Urgency

Creativity is a by-product of urgency. When we move quickly, it causes us to think quickly, and our minds sharpen.

This naturally puts us in a creative state.

Creativity is a key component to a fulfilling life—this is where we are most likely to act on ideas and open up opportunities for ourselves.

This is a state of freedom—a state of being in tune with our true selves where we are truly connected to our intuition.

 

What Happens When We Move Fast

Perfectionism is Destroyed

Perfectionism in any aspect will eventually keep us from moving forward; it is the best way to build up mental blockages.

We get so into our heads to overthink, which then leads to inaction.

Maybe you can relate to a time in your school days (or if you still are taking courses) when you had a deadline for a big project.

As the deadline approached, you figured out ways to get it done, regardless of how you were feeling.

In those moments of pressure, you’re a lot less concerned with making everything perfect, and more focused on being resourceful and brainstorming ideas to make it happen.

Moving with a sense of urgency provides a healthy amount of pressure to push us through those mental blocks. In effect, we are more often able to discover the new potential within ourselves.

Life is never perfect. To flow, you have to allow space for movement, passion, and even mistakes.

 

Builds Momentum

When you move quickly, you achieve more, in less time. This is a great way to boost the way you feel.

Most of the time, as you accomplish more tasks, it drives you to want to do more.

And from then, it’s a chain effect.

Having more accomplished puts your mind at ease makes you feel proud, and this makes the rest of the day effortless.

 

Surfaces What’s Most Important to Us

If you are moving at a faster pace, you naturally begin to focus on what’s most important to you.

You don’t have time to waste or spend on mindless tasks.

It forces you to truly value your time spent.

From then, you build up a day of intentional and purposeful action.

By the end of the day, it feels so good to have spent the time wisely, and you have the satisfaction of knowing that you moved forward.

 

Easy Ways to Implement Urgency in Your Day

Now that you’re more aware of how urgency stirs up our creative capacities and puts us in a higher state, I’m going to provide some tips that will set you up for success and make moving quickly easier.

These are my favorite ways to activate a creative state and get myself to move quickly:

1. Become intentional

First and foremost, a sense of direction is required to know what you are moving toward.

This is where we connect to ourselves, and our values.

Get into a quiet area, and close your eyes. Listen to your body. What is it that you truly want from your life right now?

What do you want to accomplish, and what matters most to you? What does it feel like to be there?

Go crazy, the sky is the limit. Write it down. Writing is a great way to capture these thoughts and bring clarity to the surface. You’re much more likely to follow through on the goals you write.

Make a vision as clear as possible, because it needs to be communicated with your body–emotionally and physically.

The clearer picture we have of our goals, the stronger desire we create for them. This quiets out the noise and distractions around us.

2. Time-Block

Time-blocking is a great way to delegate focus during the day. Focused periods are higher-quality moments that reap better outcomes.

Not only does time-blocking help regarding goals and work, but it also benefits our personal lives.

Time-blocking can be done on a calendar, or simply, in your head.

When it comes to work, timers are an excellent way to go.

Timers beat procrastination and encourage you to just get started.

Because the time is limited, this helps to reduce the daunting feeling of starting and leaves you feeling accomplished in the end.

Practicing urgency for special moments with our loved ones looks a little different.

We can block out distractions and focus on being present with the people we love and care about.

This helps us to create higher-quality memories and for us to feel more fulfilled from these experiences.

3.   Face the Harder Tasks First

Facing challenging actions in the morning (or whenever you decide to begin) is a great jump-start for the mind.

It gets your mind active and boosts your confidence for other tasks.

Start by taking a moment to write a list of priorities—make sure to include the most daunting tasks that you may have been putting off. It’s time to face the bear.

Put the toughest or most complicated items first.

For each item, write down potential steps or actions you feel would help you move forward–you don’t necessarily have to be right, but you’re using your best judgment.

We all have encountered obstacles in our lives that feel overwhelming and are easy to put off.

The best way to combat this is to understand that all a large “problem” is, is a bunch of smaller ones.

If you can knock out each one, you’ll make progress much faster than you think, contributing to building momentum that will work in your favor.

With practice, this becomes much easier over time. Getting into the habit of problem-solving continually will reap dividends for your future.

Conclusion

Creativity and Urgency work hand in hand. In a creative state of mind, we are likely to see and act upon opportunities that we otherwise would overlook.

Moving with a sense of urgency is a great way to communicate to our bodies in a way that puts us in a resourceful and active mode.

We must first become intentional about where trying to head so that we can effectively move toward that goal.

How we spend our time makes all of the difference; when we apply undivided focus to tasks or moments, this increases the quality of the moment, or outcome from it.

Lastly, facing the hardest tasks first jump-starts our brains to work much faster and more efficiently.

 

 

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