If you never write the novel, you’ll never have to know whether
a publisher would have accepted it.
If you don’t finish basic training, you’ll never have to know
whether you could have really hacked it in the military.
Sometimes the not knowing seems more acceptable than the
possible consequences of finding out for sure.
But how sad to let such fears prevent you from even trying.
Identify the fear or the issue that has caused your low self-
esteem. Give it a name and confront it. Imagine the consequences
of your actions or non-actions as objectively as you can.
The fear won’t go away. But if the goal is worth pursuing, and
you set your sights on the benefits of reaching the goal, you’ll be
able to act despite the fear.
reason 3. You Don’t place a high enough priority on the
activity
You’re sold on the idea that somebody ought to do the task.
You’ll even agree, if pressed, that you’re the person to do it. You
may even want to do it.
You just don’t want or need to do it enough, and you always
want or need to do something else more.
Thus, the poor task—cleaning the leaves out of the rain gutters
in autumn, to cite one mundane example—keeps getting bumped
down the list, below other, more pressing jobs. You’ve got to go
grocery shopping first, because you won’t have anything to eat if
you don’t. You’ve got to mow the lawn first, because it will look
awful if you don’t. (And nobody can see the leaves in the rain gut-
ters, after all.)
This sort of procrastination problem may eventually work itself
out. As the other tasks get done, those leafy gutters work their way
up the list. Or the problem may take on a higher priority after the
first hard rain of the season.
P R O C R A S T I N AT I O N