Leap First | #MyFridayStory No. 42

Have you ever agreed to doing a certain task or project, and then felt a strange resistance to getting started?

It’s your lizard-brain. And it’s called ‘resistance’ for a reason. The phrase was first coined by Steven Pressfield in his book Do the Work - overcome resistance and get out of your own way. Our primitive brains are wired for survival. The amygdala handles our perception of emotions such as fear, anger, sadness and pleasure. Its main function is getting the brain to react to stimuli, especially when associated to survival.

The ‘fight or flight’ response is triggered by the amygdala.

When we face a particular task, it can trigger the same ‘fight or flight’ response, causing us to delay and stall. It turns out we all suffer from procrastinating, it’s part of our survival mechanism, it’s in our DNA. But, as Pressfield explains, “There is an enemy. There is an intelligent, active, malign force working against us. Step one is to recognize this. This recognition alone is enormously powerful. It saved my life, and it will save yours.”

Sabotaging any of our thoughts and ideas that may feel risky or threatening, the lizard-brain lies at the heart of us not starting. At the time Seth Godin wrote Linchpin in 2011, Julien Smith had just published his book The Flinch. Both authors were onto the same thing:

You need to Leap First!

Procrastination is the death of anything great. Our work needs to see the light of day. If we don’t ‘ship it’* as Seth Godin calls it, our work is for nothing. Shipping is the whole point. In Start - Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters, Jon Acuff offers practical advice on how to become unstuck and to start doing your best work.

Here are some ideas to beat procrastination:

1. Make a commitment – Decide to start whenever you are faced with a decision. Make the decision publicly to help keep you honest. Writing it out helps reinforce the commitment.
2. Break the task down – Often a task can seem daunting, but when you break it down into smaller steps, or mini-tasks, you can them tick-off and feel good about it. It helps create enthusiasm and momentum.
3. Ship it! – Be careful of pursuing perfect at the expense of good. When you are stalling in pursuit of perfection, it can feel ‘safe’ to rather hide your work and not ship.
4. An attitude adjustment – This can include practicing gratitude or being generous. When your mood is positive, procrastination can’t take a foothold.
5. Remove the blockage – Sometimes the simplest thing can make us come unstuck. Let’s say you wanted to wake up at 6am every morning to start a task, but you aren’t a morning person. You delay starting the project because you can’t wake up in time. Rather, set a realistic time that you can stick to, and start.

To leap first takes courage.

The next time you are feeling unable to start, take a deep breath and recognise your reaction is normal. Then beat the lizard-brain before you put that off too.

*(A great tool to help your team become linchpins and learn to Ship it! - inspired by Linchpin by Seth Godin)