Door in Ajijic, Mexico
Did you know that procrastination is really a form of fear? I was having this conversation with a colleague a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about something they were procrastinating on, when I said that’s fear. Their response was I’m not afraid of doing this, I just don’t want to do it because I’m not very good at it. So I asked them why they had to do it if they were not very good at it. To which I got one of the two responses that are so typical, and I will admit to using it myself. Take your pick. “If I don’t do it who will?” or “I can’t afford to hire someone else to do it.”
I then asked if this task had to be done why couldn’t someone else do it? And this is where the fear comes in. The fear someone else won’t do it right or good enough. Or even worse what if they do it better (yeah and what if they enjoy doing it?) leading up to the I can’t find someone to do it, because you know you can’t find any good workers and finally landing on I don’t have the money to hire someone.
The next time you start procrastinating, ask yourself why your procrastinating and then keep asking yourself why until you get down to the real fear. Maybe you’re afraid you won’t do a good job, one you’re afraid to ask for help, because if you ask for help they might think you’re incompetent. While I don’t know what your specific fear is I do know that if you don’t deal with the real fear you might be able to force yourself to slog through the mud of procrastination. As you do that you are expending negative energy which is why you end up feeling so tired after you make yourself do it.