I continue sharing interesting discoveries by Ivan Pirog — a young indigo who considers his main task to be helping people free themselves from the psychological problems that slow down development and prevent them from living the life they want.
How to transform from a lazy person into a relentless workaholic?
“We do not dare to do many things because they are difficult,
but they are difficult because we do not dare to do them”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
You know, I’m a big fan of putting off starting work. I can spend the whole day running from corner to corner, doing useless things, just to avoid beginning. And this is a very unpleasant thing that stands as a barrier on the path to self-realization.
Why do I procrastinate? Of course, there are reasons for that. And the main one is inner fear. And I want to say a big thank you to my fear! It helped me explore the mechanism of procrastination and find effective methods for turning off laziness.
If the problem of procrastination is familiar to you, I invite you to an exploration that will raise your level of awareness and help you get rid of procrastination and laziness.
I want to share with you two proven methods, one of which you definitely haven’t encountered anywhere else. The other is so new that it might not have reached you yet. So, get ready. Here we go!
“How I procrastinated on starting work”
Almost always, before writing a new text, I procrastinated using this algorithm: check email —> drink tea —> reply to a comment —> click a link —> click another link —> eat —> check email —> watch a video.
In those moments, I was like a little animal running in a closed circle in unsuccessful attempts to find a way out.
I didn’t dare to start work because I was afraid. Afraid that I wouldn’t be able to explain my thoughts clearly and accessibly. Afraid that I would suffer in unsuccessful attempts to find the right phrase. Afraid that I would fall into a mental stupor with a complete lack of understanding of what to write next.
And these weren’t just fears. It was complete certainty that this is exactly how everything would happen! I wasn’t procrastinating on the work itself, but on the unpleasant consequences of the work.
But when I gathered my courage and started writing the text, something amazing happened…
“My expectations never matched reality!”
“Fear is the constant companion of untruth”
William Shakespeare
If I expected the work on the text to be difficult and painful, the text flowed easily and smoothly. If I expected unpleasant emotions, they weren’t there. When I was sure I couldn’t explain a thought, I was surprised at how easily it came!
Of course, the work wasn’t always easy. But despite that, even the most difficult process didn’t cause the expected discomfort.
Nevertheless, after writing another successful text, my fears would return. My mind stubbornly continued to ignore the obvious facts, as if deliberately not noticing the clear mismatch between the forecasts of what would happen and the actual experience. And I would avoid work again.
“And then I decided to conduct an experiment…”
“Fear is the first inevitable enemy that
a person must overcome on the path to knowledge”
Carlos Castaneda
One fine day, I started a research journal where I decided to record negative predictions about work. I wanted to document them so I could later compare them with real experience.
The goal of the experiment was to find out two interesting things. First, I wanted to know how often expectations match reality. Second, I wanted to test whether my mind could calm down once enough recorded refutations had accumulated.
Before starting work, I would write down my expectations and predictions, rate the anticipated difficulty on a scale from 0 to 10, briefly note what exactly I was going to do, and then get to work with research curiosity.
During work, I would periodically turn to the journal to record my current feelings, emotions, and bodily sensations. At the very end, I would write down my conclusions, give an actual difficulty rating, and tally the final score of the “match.”
If expectations and fears were confirmed by experience, I would award a point to the mind’s predictions. If not, a point was added in favor of real experience.
As expected, the score in favor of experience increased each time, and I became more and more aware of how far my predictions were from reality. In fact, real experience and expectations were about as similar as a pencil is to a crocodile 🙂
“The experiment went so far that…”
One day I decided to test expectations I was 100% sure about. It was daytime. I was very sleepy, my body radiated lethargy, and there was a characteristic stinging sensation in my eyes. A single thought pulsed in my head: “I urgently need to lie down and sleep!”
There was no doubt that mental work in such a state would be difficult and sluggish. I knew for sure: if I didn’t sleep, thinking and concentrating would be excruciatingly hard.
But curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to test if that was true…
What happened next defies all logic! Literally 10 minutes later, I was immersed in the process and noted with surprise that I didn’t feel sleepy at all! Even the characteristic stinging in my eyes had completely disappeared, and the sleepy sluggishness in my body had turned into alertness.
It was hard to believe, but the fact remained a fact. I made the appropriate notes in my research journal, and the score in favor of real experience increased once again.
“What did the research lead to?”
“The nature of fear is that thoughts
distort reality”
Film: Antichrist
The more entries accumulated in the journal, the less I trusted my own expectations. Each recorded fact of discrepancy between predictions and real experience dealt a powerful blow to my belief that the mind truly knows what will happen.
In the end, my experiment concluded with a score of 21:1 in favor of experience, and I finally stopped believing those fears. You’re probably wondering where that one point in favor of the mind came from? 🙂
Okay, I’ll tell you. There was one moment when I expected that working on a text would progress poorly. And in fact, that’s exactly what happened. But then I quickly realized it happened due to insufficient preparation. I had simply forgotten to clarify the sequence of material presentation for myself in advance. Once the mistake was corrected, the work went perfectly!
“Trusting the Mind’s Forecasts = Failure. Distrust = Success”
“Trust, but verify”
folk wisdom
When we avoid taking action, fully convinced that our predictions will match reality exactly, a very illogical thing happens.
Our mind recommends putting off the work “for later” so we can find inner peace and feel safe right now. But as a result, the exact opposite happens. The longer we avoid taking action, the more stress and self-discontent build up, and the lower our self-esteem and self-confidence drop.
And we all understand this perfectly 🙂
So, in the long run, the mind’s “kind” advice to put work on the back burner plays a nasty trick on us. Doesn’t it?
Based on this, I want you to think about a very interesting question: if our mind makes false predictions about what will happen, then how can we be sure that the mind can make the right decisions at all?
To make the right decisions in life, you need to train the mind to listen to the inner authority of the body, which is unique to each person. But that goes beyond our discussion here.
“Where Do All These Pessimistic Forecasts in the Mind Come From?”
A girl named Lena periodically got low grades for her literature essays. Each time, her mom scolded her out of fear that she wouldn’t be the best (an unattainable and pointless goal, by the way). Mom sincerely believed that a good scolding would motivate her daughter to study better.
But in reality, all these scandals turned out badly because the girl felt even more worthless and pathetic. The emotional blows her mom dealt made Lena shrink and close off.
The girl’s body triggered protective instincts, and with each time, the connection between a “bad essay” and the “fear of being attacked by another person” grew stronger.
Now she’s an adult woman with a rich vocabulary, well-read and smart. She wants to become a writer. But at the mere thought that her text might not be perfect, she starts to feel the fear that her mother so persistently reinforced. Now the body’s protective instinct triggers fear to keep Lena from writing. Thanks, Mom.
Here’s another example…
Mikhail runs his own business. He’s a professional consultant-analyst. And now he needs to write an analytical review for a client. But Misha keeps putting it off, even though the work is interesting and brings him pleasure.
Why does he procrastinate? When Mikhail analyzed the reasons, it became clear that he’s afraid the client will see the result, be disappointed, and stop working with him. That would be painful and hurtful.
It turns out the reason lies in childhood. When his dad assigned some task, the little boy tried his best, but due to lack of practice, the results were far from perfect. But instead of praising his helper, the father showed his son in every way that he was deeply disappointed in him: “You didn’t try hard enough! Where are your hands growing from, you blockhead?” the father would say.
Since Misha learned about relationships between people through his parents, his mind is firmly convinced that everyone in this world behaves this way. The boy couldn’t have imagined that such behavior was unique to his dad, whose head is simply exploding from an excess of cockroaches 🙂
For practically all cases, the pattern is identical:
One day, a child went for a walk in the garden and stepped on a rake. The rake swung up and hit him hard on the forehead. Thirty years have passed, but he is still afraid to walk in the garden because he is certain the painful experience will inevitably repeat itself.
“The First Step on the Path to Freedom from Fears”
“Having reached the end, people laugh at the fears
that tormented them at the beginning,”
Paulo Coelho
So, you have firmly decided that it’s time to stop being afraid and putting off important things. What will the first step be? To start, I highly recommend repeating the journal experiment.
Firstly, it will help you learn more about your fears and greatly increase your awareness. Secondly, there’s a high chance that your trust in your fears will significantly decrease. Thirdly, it will prepare you for the second stage, where we will turn off these fears once and for all (you’ll learn about this in the continuation of the article).
Start a journal right now! It will help you realize that your mind is a very lousy fortune teller, and its charlatan predictions should be treated with great skepticism.
It doesn’t matter what format the journal takes. If you’re comfortable typing, create a new text file. If you prefer the feel of paper under your hand, get a separate notebook.
“How to Keep a Researcher’s Journal?”
“Fear must not be allowed to command the mind.
Otherwise, we stray from achievements.”
Dante Alighieri
By and large, it doesn’t matter. The most important thing is that you record your expectations and the real facts. Nevertheless, I want to suggest some points that you can freely borrow:
- Start date and time;
- Goal of the work. What am I going to do right now? What result do I want to achieve in the next few hours?
- How am I going to act? Briefly describe the actions that will lead you to your work goal. You don’t need to know the perfectly correct actions. Write down whatever comes to mind first.
- What physical state was I in when I started working? Fatigue or alertness? Drowsiness or clarity?
- The mind’s expectations about what will happen if I start acting right now. What “unpleasantness” do you expect during or after the work? What unpleasant things will happen if you start acting right now?
- Preliminary difficulty rating from 0 to 10. How difficult will it be to act? 0 – very easy, 10 – very difficult.
- How I immerse myself in the process. Here you describe the actions you took to immerse yourself in the work.
- How do I feel after immersing myself in the work? As soon as you feel that you have immersed yourself in the work, describe your feelings, emotions, and overall state.
- Continue describing the actions you take after immersing yourself in the work.
- What conclusions do I draw after the process is complete? Were the mind’s expectations justified?
- What was the actual difficulty of this work (from 0 to 10).
- How do I feel after completing the actions?
- Record the score of the match “Mind’s Expectations vs. Real Experience”.
“Conclusion”
Everything written above applies not only to procrastination. It equally applies to any expectations and fears of the mind that paralyze us and prevent us from moving forward.
So you can conduct this experiment in any area of life where the mind’s expectations cause inner numbness or an unwillingness to act.
By the way, I think I promised to introduce you to the second method that completely shuts off fears… It’s a shame the article’s length didn’t allow for it. So, as usual, the most interesting part has to be saved for the article’s continuation. That’s just my bad habit 🙂
In any case, don’t wait for the second part while remaining inactive. Start a journal right now to gather material for further work.
“Let’s Sum Up”
1. Our inaction is caused by the fears and expectations of our mind, as well as complete trust in those fears.
2. In the vast majority of cases, the mind’s predictions are wrong. Our mind is incapable of making accurate predictions.
3. Test your fears in practice. To do this, write them down, do what you’re afraid of, recognize the real facts, and compare them with your expectations. The more refutations you accumulate, the less trust you’ll have in the predictions.
4. Trusting the mind’s predictions leads to failures, stress buildup, lower self-esteem, and disbelief in your own abilities.
5. The cause of the mind’s pessimistic predictions is past traumas that have developed a protective reflex, holding us back from repeating negative experiences.
6. We’ll turn off those reflexes in the next article 🙂
That’s all for now. Thank you for reading the text to the end. I hope it was beneficial and made you stronger.
This has been Ivan Pirog with you
See you again!
P.S. Read the continuation of this topic here: What Hinders Self-Discipline?.