Taking my time, or am I just lazy? Unconsciously equating pain with work.
As we go barreling headlong towards the second month of 2016, I had to stop and ask myself - am I really making progress? I have been justifying my lack of progress in WA with the continuing need to "do research" - which basically means that I've spent hours and days just watching videos and surfing the web and not really putting anything into solid form.
At what point is doing research, at the expense of just putting your head down and focusing, just a way to continue procrastinating?
I remember reading in a certain motivational guru's books (I won't say who...) that we are constantly moving away from pain, towards pleasure. So this would be that I equate focusing and working - with pain - and watching videos and procrastinating with pleasure? How backwards is that?
My perspective was (notice I did not say *is*) skewed in the sense that I had some beliefs which equated fear with doing the work, and pleasure with putting it off.
So, what strategies might I use to change my perspective?
Once I took pen to paper and examined some of the beliefs about this process that have been making me fearful, some disturbing realizations came to the surface.
First of all, I can change the focus of my definition of pleasure from THE RESEARCH PROCESS IS FUN AND IMPORTANT ...to... I WILL RECEIVE GREAT PLEASURE BY FOCUSING THAT RESEARCH INTO A TANGIBLE ONLINE PRESENCE.
I can change WATCHING VIDEOS IS PLEASUREFUL ...to... WASTING TIME IS PAINFUL; NOT SEEING PROGRESS IS PAINFUL.
I can also change NOT BRINGING IN MONEY QUICKLY MEANS FAILURE ...to... PERSISTENCE IS THE ONLY WAY TO BUILD A NICHE AND AVOID FAILURE ...and... IF OTHERS CAN SUCCEED, SO CAN I ...or how about... BEING FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT FEELS FANTASTIC.
And...I'M AFRAID THAT OTHERS HAVE DONE THE SAME THING ALREADY ONLY BETTER THAN I COULD ... to... I HAVE A UNIQUE SPIN ON THE SUBJECT AND I CAN'T WAIT TO PUT IT OUT THERE, IT'S GOING TO BE GREAT!
There are probably other skewed perspectives and beliefs that haven't come to light yet. I will keep examining them in my journal, but the point is, that by shining a light on those fears, it's made me realize that there are no "monsters under the bed"...just my imagination!
By examining our fears, we can see that it may be simplistic to say that it's laziness that fuels procrastination. But hidden fears, fears of failing, fears of being judged or compared, fears of not being good enough, etc, are very powerful stumbling blocks.
In conclusion, the one thing I've come to realize is that fears are just like "monsters under the bed"... once you shine a light on them, you can realize that they're not even real.
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Exactly, Wayne!...and basically, you knew you could do it all along. Those pesky little fears keep getting in the way and need to be addressed.
Especially when you step out & do what you feared you couldn't, step back, and just say, WOW, I did that???
Thanks so much for your comment Luis. What do you mean that I kinda lost you. Did you find something confusing in my post? I'm always open to positive critique.
I think I agree with you...kinda lost me there but this took hard work, best of luck to you!
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We don't need to be perfect. We just need to get something out there that sells.
Sometimes I am way harder on myself that I would be if I was giving advice to someone else. Time to trust the process and just move forward regardless. Thanks Bill!