Bandwidth and Purpose

Is your bandwidth keeping you from fulfilling your purpose?

Do you have too much to do and too little time?

Your bandwidth is limited by:

1. the number of hours in a day.

2. your physical stamina and capacity.

3. your mental and emotional limits as a human being.

4. your inability to juggle the number of desires, needs, demands, and emergencies hurtling toward you.

No matter how hard you try to overcome these limits, they are there, they are real, and they will remain.

Chances are, you’ve been at the limits of your bandwidth for quite some time.

Bandwidth is easy to explain, but purpose is hard to explain because it can come from multiple sources, be evaluated from multiple perspectives, and be known by many names.

1. Is your purpose the achievement of your goals, the fulfillment of your vision, the crossing of that last item off your bucket list?

2. Is your purpose dictated to you by your circumstances? It is to fulfill your duties as a son or daughter, husband or wife, father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, or as a loyal friend or trusted employee?

3. Is your purpose chosen for you by something or someone bigger than yourself? Destiny, the universe, or God?

I have no argument with any of these beliefs.

Here’s my concern: I am subject to the tyranny of the “merely urgent” every day, so I rarely stop to ask myself, “What would be the consequences if I chose to ignore this?”

I find myself putting off the truly important, day after day, to take care of an endless list of small-but-urgent obligations.

Is it just me, or are you doing this also?

I’m not asking for your help or advice.

And I’m certainly not telling you how to live your life.

I’m just sharing a personal observation:

Urgent things are rarely important.

Important things are rarely urgent.

And learning to tell one from the other

is the key to a happier, healthier, more productive life.

If you and I were to say yes to one big thing each day, and say no to all the little things, how much more might we accomplish?

Roy H. Williams