The anxiety of taking action (DW#567)
I really like how Neil Fiore explains our tendency to procrastinate in his book The Now Habit.
He says that procrastination is our way of coping with the anxiety that accompanies starting or completing any task or making any decision.
According to him, we procrastinate to deal with feelings of low esteem, perfectionism, fear of failure (and of success), indecisiveness, an imbalance between work and play, ineffective goal-setting, and negative concepts about work and ourselves.
It makes sense right? Think about something you are procrastinating about. And check in with yourself. What are the underlying feelings you are trying to deal with?
Are you concerned that the task or project will not be done perfectly? Are you scared that once done, people can criticize your work (or worse, YOU)? Are you concerned that you will not measure up to your own (perhaps unreasonable?) standards of perfection?
Naming your fears and concerns is the first step to taming them.
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