Are you doing what is important, or what is “urgent”? All day long at work, I bounce from one urgent thing to another.
Tom Petty was my favorite musician. His life ended as he finished another long, grinding tour… where every performance was urgent. He placed himself in that situation, choosing the urgent over the important. But it didn’t have to be that way. That one more long tour didn’t have to happen. Just like that one more year doing something that doesn’t give you joy… doesn’t have to happen.
In his last interview, he talked about how much he was looking forward to getting home, spending time with his family. He was going to do the important. There would be no more long tours.
Soon, there will be a lot less urgent, and a lot more important in my life.