The Real Reason You are Procrastinating
“The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”
~ Steven Pressfield
This quotation from Steven Pressfield so resonated with me. I just finished teaching my Platinum I group two weeks ago and I’m on to teaching my Platinum II group and The Money Club this week.
And what I see over and over again is how we as entrepreneurs resist fear and discomfort. When we are afraid we see it as being wrong, and we do everything we can to run away from it.
Have you ever experienced that moment when you sit down to write your newsletter and it just feels too hard to write? So you get up and do something else and it ends up not getting written.
Or you wake up determined to do a follow up call with someone – but then you decide that you’ll just put it off until you “feel better”. And it doesn’t get done at all?
Most procrastination comes from three root causes: fear of rejection, fear of being seen as imperfect (or looking stupid) and fear of failure.
Here’s where it gets interesting – these fears were ingrained in us from a very early age.
In school we were taught three principles:
1. Work on your assignment until it is perfect. Once it is perfect, turn it in. If you turn in something that is imperfect, you’ll be embarrassed, shamed and/or get a bad grade.
2. You must practice in private. Only when you are ready should you perform publicly.
3. If you just study hard enough, you’ll know everything on the test – and you’ll pass with flying colors.
While these principles served us in school, they don’t serve as entrepreneurs. In fact, I’ve spent years unlearning them for myself, and assisting my clients to do the same.
So how do you get beyond what you learned in school? You need a new set of rules of course! Rules that serve you as an entrepreneur.
1. Imperfect action is better than no action. Just get it done and put it out there. Then analyze, correct and put it out there again. You’ll learn the most by seeing how others react to your work, rather than trying to figure it out from the confines of your mind.
2. You can do talks to your mirror over and over again, and you’ll get more and more comfortable. When you get on a stage and just do it, you’ll learn the most (and you’ll learn it quickly too). Risking publicly is the fastest way to improve. Don’t be afraid to get out there and try (and fail) in front of others.
3. No amount of “studying” will prepare you for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
You could practice for two weeks for a huge talk – and then have someone make a rude comment that totally throws you off. You could get off the phone with a perfect prospect, credit card number in hand. Then you get an e-mail that she’s just not ready to sign up yet.
Entrepreneurship is all about dealing with the ups and the downs and being ready to handle whatever is thrown your way. The less you need to “control” every outcome – the easier it will be for you.
Once you accept these new rules of entrepreneurship – you’ll find that you are less resistant to the process. And that means you’ll get a lot more done. Yes, you’ll still be scared sometimes – but over time you’ll come to realize that fear is just a sign that you are going in the right direction.
Leave me a comment and let me know your own rules of entrepreneurship. Know that I love your comments and can’t wait to open a discussion with you
