The Practicality Behind Procrastination as Taught by Neil Fiore's "The Now Habit"

What better way to procrastinate on writing a cover letter than to blog on why we procrastinate? Nicholas Lore reminds his readers that life is a series of projects in his book Now What? The Young Person’s Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career (of which my only complaint is that the book is too thorough for a Type K but a definite must have for quarter life crisis).

Personal projects emerge from goals that have materialized into a series of concrete steps after we’ve made the mental switch from “I would like to be/do/have” to “I will make [insert project here] happen”. But all too often, the idea of creating seems more attractive than its actual execution. The initial momentum then fizzles out into another sad fantasy lost to the realm of great ideas. So let’s chop through the mental stumbling blocks that stagnate our productivity karate-style!

Neil A. Fiore’s The Now Habit, perhaps my favorite book on time management, re-frames procrastination as a defense mechanism that attempts to preserve “our sense of worth and independence”, a claim that contradicts the common assumption that procrastination is a symptom of a lack of self-discipline. Fiore distills the three major culprits that sabotage our creativity: “the terror of being overwhelmed, the fear of failure, and the fear of not finishing”. As the “what if’s” start to infiltrate our best aspirations, the imagined worst-case scenarios can lead to paralysis. But instead of using affirmations, visualizations, NLP, EFT, or other techniques that attempt to minimize, repress or ignore those fears, Fiore acknowledge the value of fear and offers some techniques that materializes that energy into an action plan. 

Karate Chop! Fear of Being Overwhelmed

Fiore provides a few universal reminders to ease the start of any project:

1. It’s natural to feel anxiety at the beginning of any project.

2. Give yourself enough fudge time and start early so that you remove the pressure of doing the project correctly the first time.

3. Turn off that critical voice! Give yourself the freedom to create something god-awful at first.

4.Don’t look at the skyscraper without noticing the blueprint. In other words, imagining the ideal end product can backfire unless you see it as the outcomes of a series of steps.

The Reverse Calendar tool advises the reader to work from the final deadline and work backwards, setting sub-deadlines to divide the project into manageable chunks. This process reveals the necessary steps that need to be taken, that may have otherwise remained invisible at first glance. Instead of ignoring the fear, this tool diffuses the initial anxiety into a practical plan. Try this! Scheduling baby steps  (i.e. open book on Monday and read one page) will allow you to gain familiarity with the project and disassociate it with fear. Hey! This project is now beginning to seem doable.

Karate Chop! Fear of Failure

What if I don’t get the job, the grade that I want, or [insert gut-wrenching scenario here]? These are very real possibilities that attempting to suppress can prove detrimental to creativity. Most of us are conditioned to use these negative consequences as a way to motivate ourselves into action in the hopes that we can wrangle the best performance out of us.

But sitting and thinking through the fears for a bit longer can bring them to a slight simmer.

Fiore challenges his readers to ask themselves:

    What would I do if the worst really happened?

    How would I lessen the pain and get on with as much happiness as possible if the worst did occur?

    What alternatives would I have?

    What can I do now to lessen the probability of this dreaded event occurring?

   Is there anything I can do now to increase my chances of achieving my goal?

Asking these questions allows you to not only generate a plan B, but also access information that can strengthen plan A. Removing the element of worry allows you to create in stress-free environment. This uninhibited mindset is the miracle space that geniuses tap into making their craft seem effortless. While working on a project Fiore reminds the reader that “Trying to control things so they go just as you imagine them takes enormous energy, keeps you blind to what could go wrong, keeps you from planning for a strategic retreat, and drains you of the energy necessary for bouncing back.” Once you make your fear a concrete obstacle, you can devise a tangible plan to overcome it and frees your focus on giving your best effort.

Karate Chop! Fear of Not Finishing

Fiore prescribes “persistent starting” as the third antidote for this third type of fear. Resistance towards the end of the project may emerge because your hard work is almost ready for evaluation. By far the most important piece of advise from this book comes from its warning to not allow external conditions dictate your sense of self-worth. Instead, it advises to carry a rock solid understanding that you are more than your accomplishments, relationships, vocations, possessions, obsessions and most certainly the outcome of this one project.  Congratulate yourself on how far you’ve come and keep starting the project over and over again until you finish it. When you’ve reached a particularly sticky situation, Fiore advises to “come up with a partial situation” and stay with it for an additional five minutes before you drop it. By “never ending down” you make it easier for your future self to pick up the project again. Here’s another revelation from the book- you might feel resistance to finish your project because you’re afraid that its success will demand more work from you. Fiore reminds the reader to keep this project separate and know that you have control over how much work you can take on.

The overall message from this book is clear- we are not naturally lazy and that in the case that we catch ourselves procrastinating, to scrutinize the fear. This process can provide feedback to the gaps of information we need to tend to. Here’s a great poster that I stole from Bre Pettis’ blog, a super cool entrepreneur and artist who wants to put a 3d printer on your desktop. Written in collaboration with Kio Stark, the Cult of Done Manifesto came into being in 20 minutes. 

http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html 

Poster Credit: Joshua Rothas

Ode to The Circle (and Cycles and Spirals Too)

As I explore the topic of natural growth vs. will-powered growth, there seems to be a shape I keep encountering- the circle.

Laurence Boldt takes practical Western philosophy with the more intuitive Eastern Zen philosophy and produces harmonious Type K-friendly books. In the Tao of Abundance he writes “All things return…within the time-bound realm, a circular pattern evades the whole of life- from womb and tomb to the cycles of the moon, from day and night to the seasons- the wheel of life moves in a circle.” Nature’s custom to operate in cycles can be seen in the sacred geometry of The Flower of Life.  It is said that all things physical replicate this pattern- take embryonic division for example. This figure is constructed by a single circle reproduced six times at equidistant points and captures the ecosystem of creation.

                                              

And yet taking circular pathways in life in general is not something that the Western school system encourages (certainly not public schools). Instead it teaches us to project ourselves into the future and create a linear plan to arrive at destination B. If in case we encounter a true interest, we must keep this newfound knowledge as a closeted hobby and endure self-sacrifice so as to prove our perseverance when we arrive at point B. If we’re lucky, we remember the old adage to “enjoy the journey” but this linear mode of goal planning stifles the future with the logic of human experience, which is limited by what’s been done and what’s been seen. Laurence Boldt observes, “In the West, we know a great deal about lines, but we have forgotten the power of the circle. We know about lines of reasoning and logic but discount the circle of intuition. We know about deadlines, timelines, and lines of history but discount the cosmic cycle of return… Now lines have their place, but life is a circle- and the way of life is circulation”. Running around in circles then, has its own virtue. To ignore Mother Nature’s cyclical wisdom in our own personal lives denies a fundamental truth regarding human nature- that we work in cycles, we create in cycles, and experience abyss and bliss in cycles (Ecclesiastes 3).

This is the macroscopic view that success coach Michael Neil utilizes in his newest book The Inside-Out Revolution. Neil looks at the gambit of human emotions and notices that people naturally display the characteristics of resilience and perseverance. When we accept that excellence, wholeness and well-being is our natural equilibrium, we stop attempting to fix ourselves because we recognize that we are not broken. When we become lost in the whirlwind of our fears, we cannot strategize our way out of the confusion. To do so would go against the current of our momentary reality and no amount of positive thinking can fool us into thinking otherwise. The easiest way to separate water from sand in a jar is to let it sit still. The clear water can then be poured out into another beaker. This perspective makes strategizing from a point of clarity seem effortless. In terms of personal effectiveness, Michael Neil’s philosophy warrants that we will automatically return to those things that we need to do if we have chosen to create from a state of abundance as opposed to a state of lack.

Similarly, Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, understands that personal growth occurs in cycles as demonstrated in his mockup of The Upward Spiral:

                                                         

Imagine yourself walking on one of those lines and failing to notice your walking on an incline because the slope is so shallow. Personal growth can be as easy or as difficult as we make it to be. 

Is it possible that as we grow into our dreams we can remain so entranced by the magic of our vision that we anesthetize ourselves from experiencing growing pains? This question places less emphasis on deadlines and willpower and focuses more on our ability to follow an authentic desire with joy.

What would happen if we detach ourselves from the belief that it takes hard work to achieve success (however each individual defines success) and accept its polar opposite?  Note: This is not a Gen Y-er’s attempt to undermine the long-standing principle of hard work. That’s already been done (Blame Tim Ferris).

But what does it mean then to inhabit the circle, to have nowhere to go and nothing to be? And at the same time, how do we reach for our dreams without reading our incompetence as a testament of our own self-worth? The Type K appreciates the abundances of point A and reaches for point B out of curiosity, knowing full well that he can find all the happiness that he needs at point A. 

The bottom line: don’t be a square, be a circle!

The Type K

“What is a Type K?” you ask? And are you one of them? (Hopefully by the end of this article you’re wanting to become one.) We all know of those anxious Type A’s who are highly organized, task-oriented, and prized for their left-brained, analytical abilities. And we are well aware of those infamous Type Z’zzzz whom society chastises for “going with the flow”, oftentimes following an unstructured lifestyle that caters to their creative impulses. I envision the Type K as a grand master sensei that balances the best of both worlds— he maintains his feet on the ground and his head in the clouds. This is his ideal equilibrium, the natural resting point that follows his core tenets:

The Type K’s Tenets

          1.     I am love.

          2.     Loving life expands my world.
    3.   My expansion depends on whether I choose or refuse to love. 

Pursuing goals does not have to entrap us in a rat race of self-negation and self-loathing. Even our focus on personal development can leave us mired with the notion that we are not good enough, that we need to experience public victories to feel worthy or do things to feel “more enlightened”.  And sometimes we need life to kick our own a**** to grow and snap out it. But we don’t need to see a prude, wide-eyed secretary evaluating us when we retreat into introspection.

Who Am I?

I’m a young adult who finds herself in the abyss & bliss of quarter life crisis, attempting to sort out the difference between childishness and having a free spirit. I am reviewing a year’s worth of journaling to re-learn the material that made an impact on my well being and hopefully contribute to somebody’s growth in the process by recommending the talks and books that helped me develop and love myself more. I’ve attempted to grow from straight willpower (a Type A approach) and pure positive thinking (a Type Z pitfall) and failed.  My primary purpose is to feel comfortable knowing that I’m perfectly imperfect and complete in my incompleteness. My goal is curate information that nurtures a Type K’s natural approach to growth and get in touch with people who feel the same way. Please feel free to comment, share or even better, subscribe!