Procrastination: The Lazy Cousin of Fear
“Procrastination is the lazy cousin of fear. When we feel anxiety around an activity, we postpone it.”
- Noelle Hancock
To augment the interpretation and critique of the quote’s content, first I must assert myself. I am a licensed professional counselor, a licensed massage therapist, and a professional procrastinator. And to retain clients, I will use my pseudonym: Hambone. But if you do figure me out, please feel free to admonish me for possessing this most undesirable and defeating trait.
I have been thinking (brain=bad neighborhood) for several months “I need to blog for Ubuntu again”. I’ve also been walking/sitting/running around aimlessly using the following excuses:
- Those radiator covers aren’t going to dust themselves nor is that trail mix going to eat itself.
- I mean, how many people actually read the blog? It can’t help or hurt business if I don’t do it today.
- I have terrible, terrible writer’s block when I sit down and place my chocolate covered fingers upon the keyboard.
-I really, really need to scroll through social media and like, like, love, love, wow everything.
- Children: if you had two under three…(fill in the blank)
- I’m watching the new Netflix series that I never started because I was scared to start because people have given me so many recommendations and I was scared I wouldn’t finish one or any of them.
- Because I was scared.
Scared of judgment. Scared that I would start and go blank. Scared that someone would give negative feedback. Scared that by beginning something, I would have to finish or remain accountable. And I know that you all (all five of you, because that’s whose reading this) understand procrastination as it is sometimes/often/always looming in one area of our lives.
Fear
While walking around procrastinating, I began to define fear. Fear is an unpeeled onion. Fear is a robber of intimacy. Fear is the unfit guardian of procrastination, dishonesty, jealousy, sloth (procrastination’s twin sibling), and all the traits that rear their ugly heads during the spiritual experience undergone by every human. When we feel fear, it is an indication that something is wrong or we are in danger, whether real or imagined (irrational). In most cases, it is irrational but often not without a prior experience to justify its consciousness.
There is a quote that triggers me: “Fear is faith without works”. In my humble, professional opinion, fear is not always related to whether you have faith in yourself or a subscribed deity or religion. Yes, fear can be a great motivator or a great hindrance to our progress if we are/aren’t willing (not ready, because we are never “ready”) to experience discomfort. Without addressing these feelings that arise from triggering situations, fear will exist. We can feel or we can avoid feeling, those are the only two options.
And WOW: when that fear takes you to a place where you finally break through barriers of self-doubt, it is a beautiful and exciting shared experience. Shared because everywhere you turn, somebody has completed a task or goal they’ve been putting off for days, weeks, months, years.
I’ll let someone else write the blog on “Tips for Procrastinators”.