How to move a mountain
O.K.M. Series - Motivation 1
When it comes to keeping our motivation level high, a first step is to eliminate anything that can knock it down.
Often when facing a project or challenge that seems too big or too hard for us to achieve, which takes us out of our comfort zones, or that we find boring or annoying, we lose our motivation and freeze: in other words, we do nothing at all.
In this post, we learn how to fight such paralysis, by detailing:
Why do we freeze?
How can we detect being frozen?
How can we unfreeze?
After what I will illustrate with a few examples, before concluding.
Why do we freeze?
I can think of four possible causes of freezing (they can be cumulative):
Perception of impossibility
You have the perception that the task is too big or too complex to be achieved. Hence, you feel that starting it is pointless. Hence, you never start.
Indecision
The task presents so many different and interconnected aspects that you have no idea by which end to start. Or you lack necessary information to choose how to optimally tackle the task. The discomfort that this causes keeps you away from starting.
Fear
The project pushes you out of your comfort zone, and it scares you. Hence, You dare not to start.
Disinterest/Annoyance
The task bores or annoys you so much that you keep pushing back its execution.
How can we detect being frozen?
A natural lie to ourselves
We may not realize immediately that we freeze.
Because it may prove our inability or default of courage, we intuitively tend to justify our lack of progress, to protect our perception of our ego. And we naturally give credit to any explanation that keeps us clear of reproach.
Detecting a potential case
You should mentally raise a red flag when you notice a task still pending although you were supposed to have started some time ago (some todolist software can also do that for you).
Objectively clearing the doubt
Here is one method to confirm or refute being frozen:
- Ask yourself: “Why have I not started this task?”
- Write down your complete answer on a piece of paper.
- Ask yourself: “If I had asked someone else to undertake this task such a long time ago, would I buy the reason why he did not start?”
If the answer is no, then you have just admitted being frozen.
By picturing an anonymous subordinate instead of ourselves in this situation, we try to gain in objectivity and severity. This attempts to exclude our personal bias from our thought process.
How can we unfreeze?
Step 1: Deal with the big picture
Break down your task into as granular sub-tasks as possible. Get as complete and detailed a view as possible, by listing everything that undertaking the task would involve.
I personally like to do mind mapping in such situation, but anything works as long as it dumps the details of the task from your brain to an external medium, such as a piece of paper or a computer file.
The result does not have to be perfect, but most important aspects of the task must now be in front of your eyes instead of stuck in your mind. This should improve your objectivity.
Step 2: Take a decision
Now that you have a clearer view of the task:
- Decide whether you should undertake it or not.
If you objectively realize that the task is indeed impossible, or that it takes more effort than it will yield benefit (in total), or that there is a smarter way to go: you may then legitimately cancel the task.
Often, you cannot answer this question with a hundred percent certainty. In such case, you must still take a decision to the best of your knowledge. This constitutes a risk of time or opportunity loss. You must accept to take that risk once and for all in order to move on. - If you chose to undertake the task, order the sub-tasks by priority to define an execution order/plan.
As earlier, often you can have a hard time deciding by which sub-task to start due to the project’s complexity. This constitutes another risk of loss in terms of time or outcome of the task. Once more, you must accept to take that risk in order to move on.
Step 3: Execute the sub-tasks
Now, stop thinking about the big picture, and mindlessly execute the plan that you have defined for yourself, as if you had received it as an order from a hierarchical superior.
By having taken all necessary decisions beforehand (including acceptance of any involved risk factor), you should feel less disrupted in your work by the thought of your own doubts.
Also, sub-tasks are easier to apprehend and often less impressive than the complete task. By focusing on them, you may find the execution less scary and less tedious.
Examples
Learning Chinese
(Perception of impossibility)
Learning Chinese (Big Picture)
versus
Taking a Chinese lesson X times a week (Execution)
Taking lessons only involves that you regularly walk into a classroom, sit and pay attention for a few moments. This seems much less hard than learning Chinese. Yet, with regularity, you will learn Chinese as an outcome of sub-task execution.
Writing down a 20 page report
(Complexity or Disinterest)
Writing down a 20 page report (Big picture)
versus
The following succession of sub-tasks (Execution)
- Make a plan
- Open a new word document, name it and save it.
- Write down the sections of your plan
- Fill in each section with content (in whichever order you like)
- Correct your structure, syntax and language
- Proof read (Very important!)
- Send.
By doing steps 1 to 3, you facilitate the execution of step 4, which is the most tedious. If your plan was relevant, the inspiration for content should kick in as you go. If not, you may want to review your plan.
Skydiving
(Fear)
Skydive for the first time (Big Picture)
versus
The following succession of sub-tasks (Execution)
- Call a (serious and well reputed) skydiving school
- Book a date
- Go to the school
- Follow the instructor’s directives one by one
In theory, the only sub-task that should scare you is the actual instruction to jump. But thankfully, when it will come, you will already be attached to your instructor, who will not give you a choice!
To conclude, I hope that the recommendations exposed in this article will help you to quickly undertake projects that you earlier thought too big, too complex, too scary or just boring.
Remember that when you execute, thinking of the big picture is like looking down and risking feeling vertigo as you climb a wall. In order to progress, focus on the sub-tasks instead.
Thank you for reading! I welcome your feedback, so please feel free to react, comment, and recommend the article if you enjoyed it. Take care!
Disclaimer: This article belongs to the O.K.M. Series (Organization - Knowledge - Motivation). To learn more, please follow this link to the series index:
