Urgent, Important, Required – Is it really though?

It makes me irate to open the mailbox and find envelopes like this:

telling me I *have* to do something, telling me something is *urgent* or required.  Says who?

My frustration I’m sure goes back to my consumer reporting days when some of these border on misleading… with lead in text on the envelope *your auto-loan* or *your mortgage payment* makes most of us open the envelope only to find a solicitation.

Now when I get the *urgent* mail, I almost say out loud “How do you know what’s important to me?”  I get to decide that.  I get to decide where I put my time and attention – both of which are valuable commodities these days.”  It’s an easy call to make when going through a stack of mail.  But it’s not always that easy with the digital distractions of the day such as texts, Facebook, Push-alerts… which seem to happen every few minutes. They vie for our attention at a rapid-fire rate and many times, without thinking about it, we give *them* what they’re after – our attention.  But just like with the mail – who are *they* to decide that they’re important enough to distract you from your present moment and who are *they* to decide what’s important to you.

Just remember – your attention is yours.  Only you get to decide whether or not to open that envelope or that Twitter mention.  #AttentionwithIntention