Understanding Procrastination & Finding Solutions to Overcome it (3)

13. Fear of success – Fearing that your life may change with success

• Reaction: What if success changes me so much and in so many ways that I’ll lose my friends? What if my husband/wife cannot handle the changes that come with success? What if I don’t like the changes it will bring? I better not pursue my goal in case achieving it changes my whole reality.
• Reason: Most often people avoid success because they fear that the power that will come with that success will change them (power corrupts, right?) or change how their friends see them. Or they fear that their situations and state of affairs will drastically change once they achieve their goal and that makes them fearful of what it might entail. It’s the fear that success will throw people into the wind or hurl them into a storm of events over which they have no control.  Success will bring changes to one’s life, but fearing that the changes will be bad comes from deep insecurities the person has. These insecurities block all the beneficial aspects of success the person might have imagined and turn the spotlight on the changes that are undesirable.
• Solution: Realize that even after being successful you can always choose your path and not do what you don’t want to do. However, not wanting to succeed is dampening your potential because you’re seeing yourself as less than you really are. Recognize the fact that while not failing through inactivity is not succeeding, not succeeding through inactivity is failing. It’s failing in that which could have been your success. It’s fostering the absence of something that could have been there for you in the future. It’s abandoning control over your future. This recognition will change your outlook on success.

14. Fear of change – Deep desire to keep the status quo

• Reaction: I’m used to being where I am and I don’t want to risk losing my comfort level. I don’t like to find myself in an unfamiliar situation and not know what comes next. I’d rather not change anything than face uncertainty.
• Reason: People of this mindset are afraid of what changes new undertakings will bring. They do not want to leave the comfort zone of their routine activities and avoidance of risks, fearing the consequences of new ventures. They do not want to change their routine, even at the expense of letting go of their dreams, because change scares them. Existing comfort and certainty is valued more than fulfillment and success in the future.
• Solution: Realize that you are and will always remain in charge of your life. You can incorporate as much change in your life as you want and is appropriate at the time. You can bring the changes into your life very slowly and in accordance with your comfort level. Forgoing all change and complete overhaul of your life are the two extreme points of the spectrum that you’re seeing right now. However, there’s a huge range of possibilities in between those two points. You can choose to start at wherever you feel comfortable on that range and devise your course of action.

15. Perfectionism – Not wanting anything but a perfect outcome

• Reaction: I’m taking this long to finish my work because I’m a perfectionist. I want everything I do to look perfect. Otherwise I won’t do it.
• Reason: Perfectionists usually get stuck even from the outset because they want to do a perfect job but are unsure whether they can deliver it or not. They often wait for the perfect time and circumstances to be manifested before they execute their task. Thus they delay taking action as long as it takes for their expectations of perfect conditions to be fulfilled—which is usually never. Perfectionists are also victims of indecision when it comes to when and how to end the task; they ponder multiple possibilities and venues and get bogged down with overwhelm. This dampens their enthusiasm, which translates into procrastination.
• Solution: Be practical and realize that doing a good-enough job is all that’s needed in fact, 99 percent of the time. And however you end up doing your work, it is enormously better than not doing it at all. Not failing at doing a perfect job is not succeeding, it’s inaction, and even worse, it’s passivity.

16. Artistic temperament – Waiting for inspiration

• Reaction: I can’t work if I’m not inspired. I know it takes me ages to start on a project or to finish one, but I have to wait for that vision, for that flash of light, to ignite my imagination.
• Reason: Creative people are arguably the greatest and brightest procrastinators. And they have a great excuse for their behaviour: lack of inspiration. It is socially accepted that art is created with the help of inspiration provided by the muses, and that if inspiration is not available, the artist cannot create. This cultural myth encourages artists to procrastinate, who rationalize their conduct by saying that they don’t feel inspired at the moment, the conditions are not right for them to create their art.
• Solution: Be more realistic and entertain the idea that while inspiration is extremely necessary to create art and literature, it does not visit you while you idly wait for it. Realize that you have to pave the way for it to arrive; you have to invoke it by working on your craft till inspiration strikes your work with the flow you’re waiting for.

17. Too much work – Unwilling to put the effort to do something hard

• Reaction: I’ve changed my mind; I don’t want to do it. First of all it’s too difficult and it’s going to take too much of my time.
• Reason: Some people put off important tasks because they still have strong connections with the inner child who wanted to play instead of do his homework. When the reason someone doesn’t start or finish a project is simply because it’s hard work and time consuming, then it’s more than procrastination—it crosses the line and gets into the lazy camp. Unless one has physical or other valid reasons for not wanting to work hard on a project dear to him, then he is just being lazy. “Being lazy is not wanting to do something that requires effort or exertion of energy. The inaction in laziness is voluntary, whereas the inaction in procrastination is almost involuntary” (Getting to Action).
• Solution: Figure out whether you’re lazy or have justifiable reasons for not wanting to work on something that you think might be hard. If you’re lazy, then see if the benefits of doing the work you’re trying to avoid is more than the comfort of not doing it. And if you’re not lazy, then you’re procrastinating, and should find out which of the reasons discussed here matches your case and learn how to solve it. Most importantly, decide that if you are mature about other things, you can be mature about this too.

18. Internal conflict – Opposing desires cancelling each other out

• Reaction: I keep jeopardizing my own success, as if I’m being pulled away from my own intention by an opposing inclination, equally mine. 
• Reason: Sometimes a procrastinator may feel like having two forces driving her: one towards accomplishments and success (which entails uncertainties and disappointments to some extent) and the other towards a relaxed  life of security and comfort by doing the minimum. When procrastination becomes overwhelming and disrupts one’s enjoyment of life, then the second force, the laid-back and comfort-seeking force has become more powerful. It could override all attempts to establish an action plan to accomplish one’s dreams. With this second force in active mode, a person can dream up a beautiful plan of action and sequence of steps to achieve her goals, but she will always be open to distractions or stuff that interrupt her work.
• Solution: Get yourself to start doing what you wanted to be doing. That means, to get yourself to put your desired action first, to start your work-day doing that, instead of letting yourself get busy with something else. The key, then, is to do the desired action first and then get to other business. That requires discipline. Distractions are so inviting, they are so alluring. It takes great self-discipline to push them aside and to start doing what you wanted to do.

Next Post: Part II. What Factors Impact Our Actions