Hi friend,
After almost 26 years of being alive, I have found out that I have a disease. And it is a very serious one.
Procrastination.
For the people who do not know what that is, it is the urge to do the "easy" thing over the actual thing that moves the needle.
If you have found yourself picking up your phone when you should have started working on that report, or if you have found yourself binging Breaking Bad when you should have been solving that bug in your app, or if you are stuck trying to find the best tool to take notes, or if you spent 37 minutes choosing the background music before starting work (I can go on forever and ever), then, friend, you can proudly (not really) call yourself a procrastinator.
But not to worry. This is not something you are born with. I know that I wasn't. And, being honest, it is not entirely your fault.
You have simply developed a habit of opting for the easier option when things get hard.
But why, though? Why is doing the hard thing so hard?
One answer: uncertainty.
See, there are two kinds of people (that I know of).
The first category is people who thrive under uncertainty. They are the people who enjoy climbing a 4,000-ft mountain without fearing for the certainty and safety of dear old life. They live for the experiences and are thrilled to find out "what if?" They often say, "What's wrong with trying?"
The second category is the interesting one. That is where you and I are.
This category is where we do not even try to be in the first category. It is not that we do not thrive under uncertainty. It's just that we do not know if we will succeed, so we do not even try.
It's like:
"I might fail" → "I'll be sad" → "I'll be a disgrace to my country" → "Therefore, I won't do the work" → "No work, no failure, and we have already established that I won't succeed, so I am not losing anything. I am just optimizing for my happiness" → "Win-win?"
Nope.
BIG. HARD. "NOPE."
At this moment, you might think, "What's wrong with trying to be happy?"
I'll answer: there is nothing wrong with trying to be happy. But honestly, it is not happiness you are protecting. It is your self-image and the possibility of being bad at something that you are protecting.
Yes, you read that right.
Remember when you were young and you were sent to a drawing class, and you did a very bad job and people in the class laughed at you?
No?
Just me?
Alright.
But you might have a similar memory.
So, at that time, when the laughing stopped, you might have felt bad and later realized that you did not really care.
You had two choices at that moment: continue with the class or stop going.
If you continued even though you were initially bad, you probably liked the process of drawing. And if you did not continue, you realized that you did not like it.
But this decision required experimentation. You had to at least try one session.
If you hadn't even taken that one session, you would never know.
This might be helpful to you.
But then again, it might not, because if you are into this kind of content, there is a good chance you are procrastinating doing something important and hard by reading this.
You should stop reading this and go do the thing.
Your future self will never thank you for not doing something important.
Thanks for reading, btw!