The Human Brain’s Comedy of Errors: Procrastination, Self-Doubt, and the Dunning-Kruger Show
Stress doesn’t come from hard work. Stress primarily comes from not taking action over something that you can have some control over — Jeff Bezos
It’s 5 pm on Sunday and you’re sitting on your sofa, feeling guilty about how much work you had planned to do over the weekend, but never got around to it. You decide to get serious, sit at your desk, and brew a fresh cup of coffee. And then….. you pick up your phone and start scrolling. You tell yourself that you’ll start working after just one more video, or one more post, or one more meme. But you never do. You keep scrolling, ignoring the ticking clock, the cooling coffee, and the waiting computer. You’re stuck in a cycle of instant gratification and delayed pain.
Suddenly, you hear the loud chime of your clock. You look up and see that it’s already dark outside. You check the time and realize that you’ve wasted the whole day. You’ve been procrastinating. But WHY? You know this behavior will have negative consequences, yet you still do it. And now you feel a surge of panic and guilt.
Well, here’s the answer to the why….our brain has not evolved to cope with the modern challenges we face. We are new software in old hardware. Procrastination, ironically, is a result of our bodies avoiding a task that feels life-threatening. Your amygdala, a set of neurons involved in emotional processing and threat identification, releases hormones including adrenaline that trigger a fear response. This stress-induced panic can overpower the impulses from your prefrontal cortex, which typically help you think long term and regulate your emotions. And it’s in the midst of this fight, flight, or freeze response that you choose to handle the threat by avoiding it in favor of some less stressful task.
But this response might seem extreme — after all, it’s just a deadline, not a bear attack. But we’re most likely to procrastinate tasks that evoke negative feelings, such as dread, fear of failure, lack of motivation, perfectionism, and insecurity.
In a panicked rush, you force yourself to start working. As you are finally studying, you realize that it’s not so bad. But when you were procrastinating, the idea of studying seemed very stressful, making it hard to get started.
You still struggle with this sometimes, but you also feel confident and smart. You can do anything. But sometimes, you are too confident, overestimating your skills and knowledge and doing silly things.
A few years go by you step up to a new stage of your life, a new job or a new college. But to your despair you feel everyone around you is smarter and more successful than you. You feel like an imposter….you feel like you are in the valley of despair, where you doubt your abilities and lose your confidence. The sad part is you know equally or more than many of people around you, but you lack the confidence.
Again why does this happen? — one possible explanation is
The Dunning-Kruger effect is related to the connectivity of different brain regions involved in emotional processing, self-evaluation, and social cognition, such as the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex, and the anterior cingulate cortex, part of the brain that monitors conflicts and errors, and regulates attention and motivation.
Imposter syndrome may be a result of the mismatch between our ancient brain and our modern environment, where we face high levels of competition, complexity, and uncertainty. Imposter syndrome may also be a way of avoiding social rejection or aggression from others, by lowering our self-esteem and status.
You eventually get over this by learning to celebrate your achievements. You realize that you are not alone, and that many people struggle with the same feelings of self-doubt. You start to appreciate your strengths and acknowledge your weaknesses. You develop a Growth mindset, which means that you believe that your skills and knowledge can improve with effort and practice. You reach the slope of enlightenment, where you gain more confidence and competence. You overcome your imposter syndrome and the Dunning-Kruger effect, and achieve a realistic and balanced self-assessment.
Years pass by and you realize that you have come a long way from your days of procrastination and imposter syndrome. You have achieved many of your goals and fulfilled many of your dreams. You feel you are at a local maximum, which is good for your current situation. But you also know that there is more to life, you have a vision of a global maximum: the highest level of success and happiness that you can imagine. You wonder what it would take to get there? If you have the courage, growth mindset and the high achiever mentality to keep learning and improving. You wonder if you are ready to leave your comfort zone and enter your learning zone. You wonder if you are ready to soar. And then you make a decision. You decide to…..
