The why of urgent vs. important

Seth Godin writes on his blog that you know you should be focusing on the long-term journey, on building out the facility, signing up new customers or finishing your dissertation. But instead, there’s a queue of urgent things, all justifiable, all requiring you and you alone to handle them. And so you do, pushing off the important in favor of the urgent. Of course, everyone has this challenge, but some people manage to get past it. Even you, the last time you made a major move forward. Think about it–those urgencies from a few years ago: who’s handling them now?

Godin says the reason we go for urgent is that it makes us feel competent. We’re good at it. We didn’t used to be, but we are now. Important, on the other hand, is fraught with fear, with uncertainty and with the risk of failure. Now that you know why, you can dance with it.

When I apply this to the investment world, a few things become easier to understand

1.     Why we make our tax related decisions in the month of March when financial year is about to end instead of at the beginning of the year? (it is urgent)

2.     Why we promise ourselves to become a better investors tomorrow and continue to act as traders today? (we know it is important)

3.     We almost never prepare a statement of net worth telling us what we own and what we owe (it is fraught with fear)

4.     Why we never own up our financial mistakes and take necessary corrective actions (we do not like to admit our failures)  

5.     Why we avoid investing in stock markets and stick to bank deposits that give fixed returns that almost never beat inflation (we do not like uncertain returns that stocks promise).

It is time for us to focus on the important and give up the obsession to do the urgent that fill us with a sense of accomplishment. This applies to our personal and financial life.