Breaking free from procrastination. How to regain your creative confidence.
The blank page, the unfinished paint, the scratched song. Have you ever felt that? I bet you have!
It feels like every time you want to start something, there’s an invisible force stopping you from doing it, or the feeling that your mind is going blank against the overwhelming white monolith in front of you, even worst, sometimes the idea is fully grown in your mind, ready to be born, but it takes days to ground, the days turn into weeks, then the weeks turn into months until the idea vanishes into the depths of oblivion. Pretty dramatic, right? If you have experienced it yourself, you know what I am talking about…
We can call it whatever we want, blank page syndrome, creative block, lack of inspiration, monkey mind, or resistance. They are all a form of procrastination.
For me, this problem occurred more and more frequently until I became a chronic procrastinator. I felt like I was on the sidelines of everything, watching others achieve their goals, make progress, or consistently deliver value. I was constantly comparing myself to others; it had become them and me, but I wanted to be on that side of the fence. As the O’l saying goes, “The grass is always greener on the other side.”
These thoughts populated my head, I was lying in my bed staring at the ceiling thinking- Have I always been like this? If not, when did it start? As I began to remember my childhood, from the back of my mind, like an arrow hitting its target, a Hell No! slipped from my lips. This kid had a passion, he liked to do all kinds of things, learn from them and enjoy it.- “So there should be a way to regain that creative confidence”, or so I thought.
Getting into the thick of it.
First I had to understand what had changed, what was causing it, and how I could possibly solve the problem! Thus began my journey to regain my creative confidence.
At this point, I knew what the goal was, but I did not know what had caused the problem. I just blindly threw myself at anything that might be helpful. If I were a doctor, I could be disbarred, I just prescribed myself something without knowing what the disease was!
I started reading some books; I tried yoga, meditation, running, reading about different religions, metaphysics, self-improvement videos, conferences, productivity podcasts, and much more. I improved a lot, but I was still far from solving the problem.
I know, I could have saved a lot of time and money by just making an appointment with a therapist, but that’s not the point here!
In between all of these things, one phrase kept popping up, “What you resist, persists.” At that moment I did not understand the meaning, but somehow I was identified with one word: Resistance. It was a clue in finding the culprit.
In my research, I came across a conference by Carol Duek, a psychologist at Stanford College, in which she talks about the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. But wait, what the heck is that?
Growth Mindset V.S. Fixed Mindset.
In a nutshell, according to her theory, there are two types of people. Those who have no predetermined standards or expectations for the results of what they do or who they are, everything is a possibility and they do everything for the sake of the process, for self-amusement and intuitively love a challenge; that’s a growth mindset.
And those who believe they are limited by the traits given to them at birth, a certain level of talent or intelligence. For them, there is no way around it, and no amount of effort can compensate for a lack of it, and that, my friend, is a fixed mindset.
But what do resistance and these mindsets have to do with procrastination? Bear with me, we are almost there!
The Procrastination Vicious Cycle.
When we are children, we come into the world with a growth mindset and want to conquer the world. But when we grow up, we change and create new habits. We feed our ego with an image we have of ourselves and a hunger for approval from others. This is where it gets complicated. The ego loves the things that are familiar to it. Anything that poses a risk or threat to that image triggers an avoidance response, even if it’s the things you love to do the most. Basically, we have trapped ourselves in the standards with no room for improvement or failure. We became fixed-minded.
There’s a general impression that creatives are procrastinators waiting for inspiration, but in reality, most of us are paralyzed by perfectionist anxiety. The Fear of failure constantly takes over, and gradually we develop a habit of resistance, and anything that does not have to do with the task getting done is a mood tamer.
“Procrastination is a form of stress relief” — Mel Robbins.
But that’s not all. Knowing that there are things you need to do, creates anxiety, and you resolve to do those things, but you have to do it perfectly, so here comes the resistance again. And without knowing it, you are caught in a vicious cycle of procrastination. So there I was, I had found the name of my affliction. The diagnosis: I had a severe case of procrastination.
Found the Problem, Now What?.
Now that I have addressed the issue, it’s been easier to narrow down my research to a specific type of content and pay more attention to what content I am consuming.
I was a little bit at loss, I knew the problem and researched about it, but I did not know where to start. One Sunday afternoon, I was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of fresh, warm coffee, having an in-depth conversation with one of my best friends and roommate. I began to tell him about my problem, and what I wanted to accomplish.
He has been working in the technology and innovation industry for many years. For him, design thinking and agile frameworks, and many others frameworks were part of his daily life. So he listened to me intently without saying a word, when he broke the silence and asked me with a sarcastic grin, “ Why don’t you start reading that book on Design Thinking you left on the shelf two years ago?”. When he explained to me that Human-Centered Design working frameworks are not only tools for work, but many designers also use them to solve everyday problems.” You are already on a good path, you know what you want to achieve and what the problem is, you are only a few steps away from a solution” he said.
What I needed at this point was to gather tools, so I picked up the book he was referring to, you may have heard of, “Creative Confidence by Tom and David Kelly”. As I read the book, I felt energized and inspired by it and was ready to put theory into action. It felt like a game where a pop appears on the screen: “Inspiration achieved”, “Human-Centered Framework achieved”, I was having fun again!
All Hands On Deck.
All the pieces of the puzzle fell into place, I knew what I wanted to accomplish (empathy) and what the problem was (problem definition). The next step was to come up with ideas.
I knew that procrastination is a habit that comes from fear of failure. So I did not have to reinvent the wheel. I gathered more information, understood how habits work and learned to train my brain to work the way I wanted it to, such as habit stacking and interval work. I trained my brain to work on a growth mindset, to be humble again, and to become aware of limiting beliefs.
“You are not a procrastinator you have a habit problem — Mel Robbins
Once I had my tools together, I designed a blueprint of habits that I knew would help me beat procrastination and regain my creative confidence (this was my prototype). I started testing it, but after a few weeks or months I could not follow through and the procrastination resurfaced, something was missing.
The Missing Piece.
An important part of creating new habits and human-centered design methodologies is feedback. This is where I started struggling, this is where I need to stretch and be brave, break free of my perfectionism and ask for feedback. Showing them your process not only makes you vulnerable, but it also creates accountability, it forces you to finish, which is an important step in creating a new habit.
It was a fresh spring evening, my best friend and I chatted over a few beers, “give yourself a chance, it’s a work in progress, not a final piece” he said, such a cliché, but I realized, I was once again on a fixed minded. He was right, “I am the project and I am a work in progress, there is always room for improvement and failure”. Being kind to myself was also a habit I had to get in order to regain that growth mindset and my creative confidence.
Fix- Test- Feedback- Repeat.
So I went back to my blueprint with a new attitude and was excited to see what would come up after each iteration. It became an experiment and a challenge where I had fun and discovered new things, sometimes I failed, and sometimes I failed harder. But I was not a failure, “I found many ways in which the formula did not work”. And that’s the way it’s stayed until today.
One last thought.
Developing a growth mindset by adopting new habits will not only help you free yourself from procrastination and regain your creative confidence, but you will also become more confident and aware of setting new habits that will help you achieve your goals or whatever you want to achieve in life.
We also believe that we can put off things in life, like that book you want to write, that painting you want to finish someday, that dream of starting a business. Let me show you what life looks like…
This is a graphic representation of 90 years of human life, taking into consideration that you already spent 1/3 of it.
Do you still think you have a lot of time?…
key takeaways:
- Name your enemy. Procrastination and perfectionist anxiety is driven by fear of failure.
- Be brave, ask for feedback and accept roughness, this will help you train your brain into a growth mindset.
- Intentionally develop new habits that get you on the path towards success. When motivation fails good habits will keep you on track toward your goals.
- Find a framework that works for you. What worked for me might not have to work for you.
- Failure is part of the process, fail fast, fail hard and learn from it to adapt for the next iteration
- Be kind to yourself, you are a work in progress, not a finished product.
- Develop a sense of urgency, life is but a fleeting moment.
