Tomorrow’s Unknown

I’ve noticed that Procrastination happens much more with something interesting but hedged around with uncertainty, than it does with something boring but definite. This is my own experience but it’s borne out by my coaching clients. Ambiguity and uncertainty are the things we dread, it seems to me, more than boredom or even pain.

When we see the prospect of a change, even an exciting change, with part of our minds we feel an urge to settle back into the comfort of our present routine. You might complain about your bed, but bed is never so comfortable as when the alarm clock is ringing.

One effect of this is a tendency to debate the true underlying rightness of the change. Is it really right for me?  Call it overthinking, call it shyness, call it perhaps (in the words of an old song) Courting Too Slow. And so we are s    l    o    w in taking that first step.

It might be a job application or a holiday or even reaching out to a new networking contact. Ambiguity is the toughest thing. Remaining poised at the start, looking at ambiguity from outside, can have a deep allure. If you have not decided on one destination, you have not closed off the other ones.

But thought won’t solve that. You can only address it by plunging in. Feel the pain and do it anyway. Remember, the search for clear mental patterns, everything fitting into place, is almost always futile. We humans are usually far more effective at than action than thought.

There, I’ve written it now. All I need to do is put up on the web. Maybe tomorrow…