Thoughts of the Week: March 8, 2024
Don't take the easy route
Procrastination is a silent killer. It halts progress, lets opportunities pass you by, and, worst of all, is often an appealing escape route — and a dangerous one. Escape can be an addiction. It’s a way of coping with stress, overwhelm, or workload in a way that puts you behind, instead of pulling you ahead.
More and more often I see people in this never-ending cycle of escape. When they’re stressed or approaching a difficult task, they pick up the phone and scroll for hours instead of facing issues and tasks head-on…or choose to focus on smaller and insignificant tasks to check a box, letting them *feel* productive without actually moving forward.
They do this because avoidance is easy. And the more you do it, the easier it gets. But easy escape is a bad sign and avoidance is a useful signal. If you’re avoiding something it needs to be done; If everything is easy, you aren’t pushing yourself.
It’s time to break the cycle. Push yourself away from ease and start tackling these difficult tasks head-on.
1. If you want to succeed, mistakes are required.
2. In these brief 5 minutes, Jeff Bezos describes how he thinks and how he solves problems:
3. You can only break the rules once you know them.
4. Stop tossing aside the good things. Recognize that you’re capable, show up, and elevate.
But Doc, Procrastination is a different beast for Neurodivergents with ADHD, not as simple as "Just do it"
I wonder if I've worked with people who've heard Bezos say similar things in other interviews. I've been in meetings which have been scheduled for half hour which have gone on for 2 or 3 hours. I felt like it was a bit if a power play by the senior person in the room at the time... Especially as we went round in circles and didn't reach any conclusion 😵💫 ... There is a fine line between being able to openly explore ideas and using a lack of time constraint to just meander without any clear path - especially if it's being led by the most senior person in the room... But I guess I never worked with Bezos either 🙃