SuperUrgency: A Series

 Part 1 of 4:  Braving the Port-A-Potty

Superurgency is a medical term referring to a strong desire to urinate, accompanied by a fear of leakage.  Yes, the nurse in me is coming out, but bear with me.
In our day-to-day lives the #1 ingredient that is missing to affect change is urgency.

Urgency in the sense of the immediate.
Urgency in the sense of what’s pressing.


We need pressure to change.
We need pressure to break routine.


At the beginning of each year, it is pretty easy for us to identify areas in our lives that need to change.  We can identify weak lifestyle points needing attention quite readily.
We often see room for improvement in eating habits, exercise, sleep patterns, or even play patterns.  We are smart enough to know what we need to do, so we pick an area to focus on and attach it to a resolution or some other positive thought process to try to motivate us.  Then we may or may not begin to take action to employ change.  I have found there are times in my own life when even if I don’t actually exercise more or eat better, I feel like I have accomplished something just by naming the problem.  That feeling of merit should only last for about one minute instead of twelve months.

The thing I require to go further and am often missing, is strong intrinsic pressure.  I need pressure from inside myself that pushes me to commit.

Now, back to the medical term of urgency.  Think of a time you had to go to the bathroom really, really badly.  Chances are that you can recall an occasion.  These occasions most often happen for me at college football tailgates, which is pretty unfortunate.  To me, a Port-A-Potty is a like Sorcerer of Dread.  I dislike using a Port-A-Potty intensely and yet it is where I find myself every time I am in this predicament on Game Day.  It’s not just the smell, or the nasty feeling that it gives me to touch the handle to open the door (or to have the opportunity to touch the treasured roll of compromised toilet paper inside), it’s much more than that.  It’s  my irrational fears of getting trapped in there or someone turning it over while I am using it.  It makes my stomach turn and my nose flare just to think about it.  Opps…  I digress.  This is about that feeling of needing to go so badly I’d brave anything…

When you have to go, you have to go.  You are fully committed to finding a restroom to relieve yourself.  In fact, it is your number one priority.


That feeling of urgency is what I’m talking about.  The urgent situation that causes you to rearrange your priorities.  This is the urgency we need to figure out how to harness in a mental construct to affect change in our day-to-day lives.

Have you figured out a way to psyche yourself up for lasting change without a sense of urgency?  Do you know anyone who has actually been turned over in a Port-A-Potty?

[moov-muhnt]

Forget the stress of trying to remember resolutions.  Focusing on just One Word a year is enough to keep me busy.

In 2011 that word was Known.

All year I wrestled with the question, what do I want to be known for?  When I die, what do I want people to say at my funeral?  What is it that people are going to miss about me?
It was a lot to think about, I must say.  But Known served me well and I am much wiser for the time I spent with it.

In 2012 that word is Movement.

Movement is going to be all about doing something about it!
Doing something to create a legacy that I can be Known for.  Getting out there!
I believe that attaching myself to the word Movement has the potential to bring so much growth and I want to make that happen in more than one area of my life.
I want to move not just emotionally, but physically; and not just alone, but with people.
(With you.)

To kick off my choice of the word Movement for the year, I hiked Stone Mountain for the first time.  The family hike was part of the celebration of my 33rd Birthday at the end of December.   Reaching the summit of Stone Mountain was jubilant on the outside and quietly symbolic on the inside.  That hike was a my way of connecting my heart and body to the word Movement for 2012.

The great thing about Movement is that it is dynamic.  It is not complacent.  Movement
stimulates growth.

It takes Movement to build a legacy.
Your legacy.  My legacy.  Our legacy.


The first photo I took at the summit of Stone Mountain, Georgia.


Want a word for the year of your own?
  Want to learn more about the One Word community?
  Want to share your word?
Check out oneword365.com.

Alece has lots of folks there with words of their own who are also sharing!