Fear Is The Root Of Procrastination

When I first started writing this blog, I could physically feel my heart pounding in my chest. Which was weird, because there was nothing to be afraid of. I was in my room and nothing abnormal was happening. The only thing to be afraid of was this article and of not writing something good enough, despite the fact that I only have 13 of you following my Substack.

To properly understand why this occurred lets look back a few weeks. 3 weeks ago the Tasmanian election had just ended. I was motivated to write about something political. I thought of dozens of headlines and titles for different articles, but whenever I sat down to write I felt majorly underqualified. Journalists all over the ABC, The Guardian, and countless other news platforms report about politics every day. I would never be able to provide anything new or better than content already out there.

I also had this dilemma when sitting down to write about self improvement. How is a 15 year old qualified to give advice? My solution was do to more research, read more, consume more. At the time, I didn’t realize that my inability to sit down and write stemmed from fear.

Then I read Feel Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal. This book was divided into three different sections: Energize, Unblock and Sustain, which basically translates to energy, procrastination and burn out. The chapter that lead to me writing this blog post was related to procrastination, it was called finding courage. I went into the section on procrastination thinking none of it would be relevant to my life, that procrastination wasn’t a major issue. I thought I didn’t have time for my blog or my Instagram. Ali Abdaal proved me very wrong.

“It isn’t talent or motivation that’s holding you back. Its fear.”

This came as a shock. But the more I read, the more I realized it was fear holding me back, not time. I was scared that writing about topics I’m underqualified to talk about might make me seem egotistical, or that my life wasn’t ‘interesting’ or ‘good’ enough to post about on Instagram.

If you actually want to get things done (which I do) this is an absolutely shit mindset. It’s shit because you don’t have to be perfect to share and create online. That makes no sense, there is not a single influencer who actually has a perfect life, and many influencers have interesting content because they voice the imperfections in their life.

It’s also shit because if your the type of person who wants to start a blog, chances are you know something about the world. Everybody has a certain subset of niche knowledge, and everybody has something that they can write about. You also don’t need large amounts of knowledge to write a blog. You can just write about your life and experiences. You could write about how you have no knowledge if that’s what felt right.

However, just knowing your mindset is shit doesn’t actually fix it.

Knowing You’re Afraid

Knowing that fear causes procrastination is actually a very liberating (and easy) step to managing it. This is why that, even if you don’t want to explore how you feel, it is really important and healthy to think about. When you have a holistic and deep understanding of the root causes of your fear you can work out if your fears are rooted in values that you care about or not.

For example, you might be scared to do something because you know it will hurt somebody you care about. That is a value you care for and a fear that should be more legitimized. On the other end of the spectrum, you might be afraid to try something new because you don’t want Bob, who you have never met, to think you are weird. Once you understand that its what Bob thinks that is causing you fear, you can work out if what Bob thinks actually matters to you, and act accordingly.

I personally don’t want to care about what Bob thinks about me, so when I realize my fears are rooted in what other people (that I don’t value or care about) think, it is easier to distance myself from them. This idea is talked about in many ways in multiple books. Ali Abdaal mentions it briefly when he discusses understanding your fears and frames it by prompting “Is this a me fear or a them fear?” Mark Manson’s Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck is contingent on prioritizing what you value and acting accordingly.

You can come to a holistic understanding of your fears by winging it, laying on your bed, and thinking for awhile. However, if your anything like me, you like having structure and steps to follow.

The activity that works the best for me is journaling. When you write about your thoughts, they will become more structured and cohesive. You will develop an understanding of how you feel through articulating it onto a page and exploring different ideas. Journaling is even more powerful because when you write your thoughts you create physical distance between you and them. This lets you process them more objectively and work out if they are rational and deserve your time.

Still Taking Action

Now you know why your afraid. But that doesn’t really mean much if you still stare at your notion, trying to write a blog and don’t do anything. This may seem intuitive, and you may want a better answer, but the best way to work through fear is to work through and change your mindset. I have 3 different things I work through to make me feel less scared of taking positive action. Firstly, I remind myself that nobody cares. I then apply logic to the situation through pro and con lists, journaling or spending some time thinking about the fear. Finally, I focus on changing my scope when considering the issue.

Ali Abdaal specifically said in his book “no one cares if I write blog posts that are rambly because I haven’t had much experience.” And the funny part is that he is completely right. Humans are social creatures, so it makes sense that our brain is on the look out for social mishap. We have evolved to present ourselves as attractive and to make good impressions because friendships and social ties are heavily relied on to ensure safety and security. But this means we tend to pretend we are under a spotlight and that everybody is watching, even though that is almost never the case.

I know this is hard to wrap your head around, but other people have a life! People are too busy worrying about things in their own life and putting a spotlight on themselves for them to actually give a crap about you. Humans are inherently narcissistic, their world is centered around themselves and we all believe that we are the most important people, that we hold some sort of significance. And this makes sense. We have experienced the world entirely from our own perspective, so to us we have been primed to view ourselves as the center of the universe. But in reality, when you are scared of what other people think it is simply because you think you matter more than you do. The only people that will care about what you are doing are people who care for you and want to support you, or people who don’t have any better use of their time. Everybody else is too busy living their own life.

Now that we have stomached the harsh reality that is our insignificance we can dive into how we can apply logic to our fears and therefore turn down the volume of the voice that tells us to be afraid. I think all of us are familiar with the common pro and con list. I'm currently reading a pro and con list about pro and con lists. Pro and Con lists do multiple things; they force you to consider critical factors you may otherwise neglect; they create emotional distance and they remind you of the reasons you wanted to do the thing you’re afraid of in the first place.

When you write possibilities down into a pro and cons list, you force yourself to view x thing from a holistic standpoint and also force yourself to brainstorm different possibilities, outcomes and likelihoods of possible factors. If your fear is irrational, normally you will end up writing down far more pros than cons in this list. When you have all of these in front of you you are able to properly weigh all different elements against each other and genuinely pick the best option in a way that eliminates bias and tunnel vision.

All of these ideas tie into manipulating your perspective in a way that best serves you. Your feelings are hard to control and can be irrational. The element of control you have over them is how you frame and understand them. My favorite way to edit my perspective is to think about how doing something will effect me in the future. A good example of this is that I get really nervous to work out in a sports bra. To help me rationalize this fear I ask myself if this will effect me tomorrow, or in a few weeks, and the answer is always no. Then I take off my hoodie and continue with my workout.

It isn’t always as simple as that, but through strategies like journaling and positive affirmations you can slowly transform how you view your fears and emotions. It doesn’t matter if the journey to changing your mindset takes you months or years. Every improvement is phenomenal, and I am truly rooting for you. When you have thought a certain way for years of your life it is exceptionally difficult to edit those thought processes. But it is always worth trying to improve the way you feel about yourself and the world around you, and I can promise that it will eventually transform your life.

The pro and con list about pro and con lists <3

https://hbr.org/2017/01/the-pros-and-cons-of-pros-and-cons-lists