What is Sense of Urgency: meaning and advantages

More than just a skill, having a sense of urgency is not only important for your professional life, but it also has an effect on your personal life and even your existential sense.

To achieve our goals and objectives it is necessary to develop a series of skills. However, in the midst of a continuous search for self-improvement, it is very common to forget something that can be the difference between your success or failure: the sense of urgency .

Unfortunately, the idea that life needs to be rushed has become popular, that there is time for everything, and that, therefore, you should not worry so much about your future.

However, this is bad advice , as the lack of urgency can compromise, hinder and greatly delay your personal development.

Even though medicine has evolved tremendously in recent years and technology has changed many areas of our lives for the better, our relationship with time remains the same.

And trying to deny that is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.

Therefore, in today’s article we are going to analyze the most important aspects that involve the theme of the sense of urgency and the advantages of being always attentive to this issue.

What is Sense of Urgency?

We can conceptualize a sense of urgency in several different ways, depending on the context.

However, in a very synthetic way, sense of urgency is the ability to recognize the value of time, and, based on this concept, create a prioritization system about what things have value or not in your life, that is, what needs urgency. .

In short, a sense of urgency is the sum of two things: a) having a sense that time is passing; and b) that things have different values ​​– there are relevant and non-relevant things – and that’s why you prioritize some over others.

And, from this conception, when we actually assimilate this concept and its importance, the sense of urgency is able to propel us towards our goals without wasting time, procrastination or laziness.

By the way, if you want to know more about ending procrastination, here on the Blog there is already an entire article on the subject: The truth about procrastination and how to deal with it (in Portuguese).

Developing a keen sense of urgency gives you the advantage of never putting off what can be done today, you understand that your time is limited and your obligation is to act to make it worthwhile.

Sense of Urgency and Marketing

Knowledge about Sense of Urgency is also very useful within the digital marketing market, being used as an effective means of directing the way the target audience of campaigns behaves when offering a new product or service.

No wonder, in recent years, the marketing market has been primarily responsible for funding scientific studies in the area of ​​behavioral psychology, with the aim of understanding how we behave, and knowing how to trigger the Sense of Urgency is one of the main skills that a professional marketing needs to dominate to stand out in today’s super competitive market.

Briefly, the Sense of Urgency is one of the principles that make up the so-called behavioral psychology, functioning as a kind of “mental trigger” that produces in the target audience a sense of urgency, the feeling of imminent loss of some opportunity, forcing them to o to make a decision regarding the product being offered.

Therefore, Sense of Urgency serves to increase the so-called “conversions”, that is, the effective number of customers who purchased the product you offered them.

The classic example of a trigger based on the Sense of Urgency is the famous “last units”.

When the customer knows or assumes that the product he is interested in has a reasonable number of copies available, there is a much greater possibility that he will procrastinate on a final decision to buy the product. And the reason is simple: there is no urgency.

However, when it is certain that there are few copies and that, if he does not decide soon, he may not be able to acquire it again, we have the behavioral trigger of the Sense of Urgency in action, impelling the buyer to close the deal.

In the digital market, the Sense of Urgency is even more important, since the flow of information is much faster, capturing the buyer’s attention for another offer if yours is not effective enough at the time of conversion.

In fact, evidence that urgency directly influences human behavior exists since the 1980s, when the first studies were carried out on the subject. Currently, behavioral psychologists around the world are studying the subject in order to understand it more deeply.

But what are the main emergency strategies/triggers?

• Set specific deadlines: As mentioned, the existence of a “threshold” that pressures the buyer to decide quickly is one of the main concepts behind the idea of ​​a sense of urgency, so setting a deadline is a powerful trigger to use: “The offer ends tomorrow”, “There are only a few more hours left to take advantage of the discount”, are practical examples of how you can implement Sense of Urgency in your campaigns.
• Limit the available offer (Scarcity): it can also be very interesting to purposely limit the number of products/vacancies or whatever the object of your campaign is to awaken urgency in your target audience. It’s the famous scarcity rule. By making it clear that there is a limited number, the buyer will have to make the decision as soon as possible. Therefore, it may be interesting to keep the number of products/vacancies in an express way, in view of the buyer, so that he is impacted by this technique.
• Highlighting the price increase: this technique is a variation of the technique of establishing specific deadlines, but with one more variable: the highlighting of the price increase after the given date. Human beings hate to lose and love to win, so when the real possibility of increasing the price is stipulated, the trigger of urgency will be activated, because no one wants to be the one who will pay more for something that other people paid less.

Are there other techniques to trigger a sense of urgency in your audience? Absolutely, but it is possible to say that most of them will be based on the three strategies highlighted above. It is also necessary to point out that they can and should vary according to the type of product/service being offered and the niche in which you work, remember: creativity is essential for the marketer.

Finally, it is also necessary to emphasize that you must use the techniques and strategies of a sense of urgency with RESPONSIBILITY and ETHICS: it is not correct or acceptable currently to use aggressive, abusive or misleading techniques in order to force the public to adhere. to your campaign.

Mental triggers must be used wisely, respecting the autonomy of the clients’ decision, leaving them absolutely free and conscious to decide. Influencing is different from taking advantage, never forget this precept. Furthermore, earning the trust of customers still remains the essential element in the conduct of the marketer par excellence.

Sense of Urgency and Anxiety

A mistake is made very often when talking about a sense of urgency: a sense of urgency is confused with anxiety.

However, they are two absolutely different things and we cannot confuse the terms: the first carries a positive charge, while the second is a disease, and therefore negative.

The sense of urgency is healthy, and it usually arises in moments of dissatisfaction with your current life, that is, it is a natural instinct that produces an awareness of time.

The sense of urgency, therefore, does not cause anxiety, nor does it affect your mental health in any way. It is a faculty that allows you to take control of your life, through time management, and direct your life in the direction you want.

Anxiety, on the other hand, is the opposite of all this, because it is not a faculty, which can even be developed and improved, but a disease that is based on the fear of loss.

Anxiety, unlike the sense of urgency, instead of serving us as a source of inspiration and not losing sight of our goals in relation to time, steals our peace, making us neurotic, thinking more about the uncertain future than the present.

Therefore, the sense of urgency is, without a doubt, a faculty that benefits and will greatly contribute in your life if you understand it in depth and apply it in your life.

In fact, the Sense of Urgency is one of the qualities present in people able to experience superconsciousness . If you want to know more about the subject, here on the Blog there is already a complete article about: What is SUPERCONSCIOUSNESS according to Colin Wilson (in Portuguese).

Therefore, we will talk about the advantages of having a keen sense of urgency and a sense of time and reality.

Advantage #1: You learn to manage your time

Developing a sense of urgency basically means that you’ve not only come to recognize the value of time, but you’ve also understood that you need to manage it in the best possible way.

The overwhelming majority of people sin because they think they still have a lot of time available or because they end up underestimating the time factor in their lives.

Unfortunately, society or the family itself often end up introjecting these ideas into people when they are children.

Ideas such as that “until the age of 20, no one knows anything”, ends up making many young people believe that this phase of life is just for “enjoying” and end up neglecting their futures.

It is obvious that we must also take advantage of youth. People’s mistake is to cover up the fact that everyone is getting old, time is not standing still, and that you have to have some control over it.

The famous 30-year crisis is a perfect example of the disastrous result of the absence of a minimal sense of urgency.

This crisis has a very simple origin to be identified in most cases: it is around the age of 30 that people begin to realize that time has passed, that they are no longer so young and that now they have a past .

As a young person, we don’t have a real “past”. Or rather, our excess of future ends up overshadowing our still very small past, but it doesn’t stop growing as time goes by.

Then the shock comes, usually at age 30, because we start to look more at our friends’ lives, we meditate on the opportunities we’ve missed, then comes the crisis: you understand that not developing a sense of urgency was one of the biggest mistakes that you’ve done in your life.

And it is precisely this kind of frustration that you will surely avoid if you understand, once and for all, the POWER that comes with it when we develop a sense of urgency in our lives.

When we know that time is against us, that in a few years our body, mind and willpower will begin to suffer the effects of natural wear and tear, our perspective changes.

We finally understand that we can only reap what has been planted before, that we need to put our ideas, dreams and aspirations into practice as often as possible.

Here on the Blog, there is already a complete article on how to simplify your life (in Portuguese), which will certainly help you in the process of understanding the value of the value of time.

There is no time to lose.

So one of the benefits you can expect from bringing a sense of urgency into your life is a greater understanding and management of your time towards your goals.

Advantage #2: You seize opportunities

Opportunities are the biggest secret to anyone’s success, although most people never realize it.

Being ready to seize a good opportunity when it finally arrives is the differentiator that can put you ahead of many other competitors in the game of life.

And one of the best ways to not let any opportunity slip through your hands is to have a keen and well-developed sense of urgency.

The logic is simple: opportunities almost always arise unexpectedly and, therefore, it is necessary to make a quick, direct and incisive decision. There is no time for hesitation. Those who hesitate too much, let the opportunity pass and someone else takes care of it.

But those who are aware of the concept of a sense of urgency know that time is running out, and so they are ALWAYS on the lookout for opportunities, everywhere, with anyone.

A keen sense of urgency, in this context, means being 100% alert to the opportunities that will eventually appear, it is to be aware that a stroke of luck, a unique opportunity can change the entire course of your life for the better.

On the other hand, people who haven’t developed this sense of urgency – the vast majority of people out there, by the way – will go through their lives missing many, many opportunities because they were never “mindful enough” to recognize them. them.

The fanciful idea that “there will always be other opportunities” is a serious mistake. Most of the time, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

So if you don’t want to see opportunities slipping away from your life, developing a sense of urgency is ESSENTIAL so that you can take advantage of all that arise from now on.

This will make you more aware of opportunities that will arise in your workplace, in your relationship life, business opportunities, etc.

Remember: a sense of urgency is the differential that puts high achievers ahead, precisely because it gives them the advantage of seeing opportunities with a view that most do not have.

Advantage #3: You stay in the present

As stated earlier, anxiety has the malevolent power to get you out of your way, throwing your mind and thoughts into the uncertain future and this ends up harming your activities.

In a completely different way, the sense of urgency does the opposite: it fixes you on the ground of the present, making you stay focused on the now, on what is within your reach.

That is, the sense of urgency gives you a realistic view of life.

You understand that your time is scarce and is diluted with every passing second, that opportunities can appear anytime, anywhere, and the conjunction of these two factors provides you with all the conditions for anxiety not to take over your life. life.

Instead of wasting your time on useless things, prospecting possible events or dwelling on the past, you definitely understand that the smartest thing to do is to stay focused, with all your strength and energy, on what will make a difference. in your life, bringing you closer to your goals.

The present is the only time that you truly own, and developing a keen sense of urgency makes you understand this not only logically, but empirically as well.

If time is passing, and it is your greatest asset, and if you must be aware of opportunities that can present themselves at any moment, the logical consequence is that you too will naturally become a more present-oriented and less anxious person. .

So it’s not an exaggeration to say the level of someone’s personal development is directly or indirectly linked to their ability to internalize the principles of a sense of urgency, always relying on the present moment, on action.

So another incredible benefit you can expect from developing a heightened sense of urgency is a significant increase in your ability to stay in the present, taking every opportunity that comes with it.

Conclusion

Being a person with a keen sense of urgency can be the difference between your success or failure.

As seen throughout this article, being a person with a keen sense of urgency brings numerous advantages: greater control of time, focus, being in the present moment, seizing opportunities, etc.

The opposite of that, that is, living as if nothing in life needed urgency has the opposite effect, destroying all your potential to develop and make your dreams come true.

The lack of a sense of urgency has the power to stagnate lives.

Therefore, a keen sense of urgency has the power to propel you in the direction of your dreams, in addition to putting you in a position where 99% of people are not due to mere inattention.

Life is a breath, our time is finite, and the sense of urgency can be your most powerful weapon to get out of the mean and go where you want.

Written by J.R.

This article was originally posted on the Portuguese version of this site and you can find it here.

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