Overcoming procrastination and resistance: The catch behind Just Do It

It was a rare warm day in late January. The sky had just dumped its clouds the day before and the sun shone proudly in the clear winter sky. The ring of the bell was sharp, signalling the end of class as I walked down the stairs towards my classroom, from the auditorium. I had just given up on a rare opportunity to speak on stage, something I wished I could and I was feeling bad. This was one of my earliest records of regret due to missed opportunity that I remember. This was followed by more and when I sought advice, the one thing people told me was to just do it. I thought they were lying. How can I just do it? I can speak but when I get on stage, I stumble and if I stumble on stage I would be humiliated. The very thought paralysed me. So, I did not. I kept turning away opportunities without realising what I was giving up on.

Many years passed by and now that I think about it, I feel quite helpless. Because I never truly understood the meaning behind just do it and I thought that everyone who could do it must be talented and that they could do it all right at the first try. They could have, but it did not mean I could, the same way. They must have practiced but to be able to do so, I must face my flaws which wasn’t something I was ready for. I had a fixed mind-set and refused to grow as a result of which I ignorantly convinced myself that it just wasn’t for me. I had to bunch of reasons to prove it. Like how my voice was soft and would barely be heard in a room, how I preferred to be alone with my thoughts, how no one understood what I wanted to say and how I would be judged if I were to simply state my thoughts. They were convincing enough but the one thing that did not tally up with these was my ability to speak short yet impactful sentences that often made my parents speechless. Yet the cons outweighed the pros, while keeping me comfortable, so I accepted them happily.

Those simple days made me restless. While I was shot with various analysis and connections between events the people around me could not see and the pages of my private notebook were filled with incomprehensible text, I started to feel selfish for keeping all of this to myself. Especially when I saw people making mistakes in the problems I held solutions to, just because they felt it was out of their comprehension. When I first spoke up, I wasn’t received well to be honest. They thought I was being self-assertive for acting like I knew everything. I don’t particularly remember how I reacted to it but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t patient with them. I had the mentality of watching these people make mistakes while giving prompts from the side until they gradually realised that maybe I was right, even though I had much less experience than they did.

Looking back, it was a gradual process similar to compounding. At first it looked like not much changed but when they started realising that maybe I was right, they started listening to what I had to say. I wasn’t right every single time but I had a higher probability so they generally listened. When I saw them responding well, I felt I could do more and my confidence grew. From taking small steps outside of my comfort zone, I do remember going back a few times but I had to come out again because of my conscience and had to bravely move forward. I did not succeed in my fist try but I was able to move forward because I did not take that failure seriously. That was because not much importance was placed on this matter. Back then I told myself if they fail to recognise their mistakes it is their fault and that I was only trying to help them. So even when they failed, I could stay casual. This made me realise the importance of detachment when it comes to making progress and how the more you try to push, the more you will move backward.

So I guess the philosophy behind just do it, was to do it at your own pace and comfort. Take small steps and start small even in private. Because personally, my habit of writing my thoughts down in my notebook was the first brave step I took, as I feared people reading them. The more you marinate yourself in that particular idea, the more familiar you become with it. And the reason why we are so resistant to something new is because you are unfamiliar. Surprisingly, procrastination which comes from a similar fear of the unknown also has the same cure, Just do it. Do not take into consideration the emotions you feel at the moment and take the necessary action.

There are three components here; Action, Detachment and Patience. With action comes the fear of the unknown causing procrastination, with detachment comes the need to feel in control to stay safe and with patience comes the need for immediate gratification leading to want to give up due to impatience. We have all been there. The want to just not do anything at the moment, the need to stay in control and know everything about the future before moving forward and wanting to give up after a couple of days of not seeing progress. While these are primal, satiating them and achieving success stand on two opposite sides of the same spectrum and everything in the universe has already been secretly priced.

Everyone’s comprehension of sacrifice is different. Some sacrifice their needs to please others, some sacrifice other’s needs to please themselves but very few sacrifice their needs for their future achievements. There must be a reason why very few succeed in life, right?

The human brain is made for survival not success. Just like a transaction being made, you pay first to receive the goods. You sacrifice before you know what you truly receive and that is the beauty of it. Take action before you know how, for when something gains momentum, it has the potential to gain traction and move forward seamlessly. We can always update our technology along the way. The road to action also has a few roadblocks. Some of us here are perfectionists wanting to create the best one from the very first try, but the fear of not being able to do so, stops us from moving forward. Everything in this world has gone through trials and tribulations and has had its own phases. From caves to building and from kites to airplanes. Like they all say there is no baby in the world that ran a marathon on its first day of trying to walk, no musician who could play a perfect piece during his first class and no singer who could handle the opera without training.

We are quite strange to be honest. We all have huge ambitions and could build fortresses in our minds but when it comes to taking action, we cower. I used to wonder why. Why am I so scared of the unknown? What is it about the unknown that I am scared of? And why is that when I think of trying something new, the first thing that comes to my mind is the stories of a 100 people who tried and failed?

The unlimited possibilities and my limited potential. Now that my ancestry has survived, and this is the year 2024, I do not wish to die. I am quite afraid of the discomfort that comes with change. I have wrote about this before, human beings fear discomfort because of their self-preserving nature due to their long line of ancestry that survived sickness, natural disasters and others. So I thought to myself, if I am only afraid of the unknown, how can I make myself familiar with it? I wonder if that is why people talk so much about visualisation. To make myself familiar with what I wanted, I started researching on how the people who have similar dreams to mine live their lives and started to integrate their practices in my life.

I had my doubts at first and even thought I was playing the fool’s game and that nothing would change. After all those small things made no significant change in my life at the beginning and my need for immediate gratification made me run out of patience. Here is the deal, where there is action there is hope. If you doubt something, you would lack the drive or motivation to work towards it and things seem like they have no meaning. Maybe in the grand scheme of things they might but what I am doing now is a gamble. Having doubts is one thing but letting them stop you is another. Because my actions may not change my life for sure, but if I don’t take this action now, my life will not change, for sure. At times as such, the one question I asked myself was, “Is this the life you want?”

The lives of ambitious people described in the movies I watched were cruel by nature. It is not that it isn’t true but oftentimes in movies, the suffering is long and happiness is ushered only in the end and does not leave a lasting impression. The shallow sense of meaning portrayed was my only representation. Honestly, half of it was because when I heard the stories of truly successful people, I was dubious. I also lacked the ability to empathize and was caught in my own beliefs or should I call it web of lies?

While lamenting on the importance of lack of representation, I often ponder about the cruel indifference the grand scheme of life holds. To grow, we must suffer. When you truly don’t let the emotions like resentment, humiliation, despair, hopelessness and anger bubbling from those circumstances control you, you grow strength.

Life goes around in circles. The training I had received from gritting my teeth and taking action, ignoring my emotions finally came to use when I had to pass through hurdles to cultivate strength. By the end of it all, we all can become Buddhist in nature. I call it Buddhist, you can call it stoic.

All of that is fine, but how do you ‘grit your teeth and take action’ when its mere thought paralyses you? When you feel everything and find yourself unable to refute all that she presents in front of you, what do you do? 

I personally felt there was no instant relief that could be provided. But one can expedite the process by seeking help first. Start looking at content that brings a different perspective to the situation at hand from what you are used to. Then try to acknowledge the presence of the fear and validate her. While most fears you hold are just there to protect you, they really don’t mean to act like a demon with us. But also what they mean is not the issue, it is what their actions result in. Most fears have to be comforted. The best course of action is to find out the reason and meaning behind their existence and evaluate its truth because the reasons behind those fears might have been formed years back and could be long past their expiration date. Think about it, what reasoning can we understand at a young age?  No to mention that these fears must have been formed at the height of our emotions. We all know emotions distort perceptions.

In retrospect, the truth is that, the road to success starts when one starts to be gentle with himself, soothing his wounded heart. The reason is simple, if the engine is flawed, the distance cannot be covered. We are the engine, and our trauma and fears, the hurdles that prevent us from moving forward. No one can say for sure if the road ahead is smooth or not, but that is not something we can control. Do what you can, detach from the need to see results and live life as you go. The formula to a peaceful life.