How I overcame procrastination and fear of failure

Friends, before I tell you a story about purpose.

I want to share some exciting news!

My Free E-Book: The Subtle Art of Standing the F*ck Out went live on 𝕏 this Thursday and I was blown away by the response.

If you didn’t get a chance to grab it, here it is

Now let’s dive back a couple decades…

I was 18 years old, seated at the back of Science class staring out of the window.

Daydreaming, imagining touring the world in a rock band.

I played the drums and back then it was all I wanted to do.

All my peers around me were talking about what they wanted to do after they finished school. They wanted to go to Uni, study law, study accounting and start working full time.

The look of enthusiasm on their faces while they talked about what sounded like jail, surprised me.

“This is not living.” I thought.

“Why do we need to spend the majority of our lives being somewhere we don’t want to be (an office), doing something we don’t want to do (purposeless work), away from people we love.”

“Why does the world work this way?”

“And why do people just blindly accept this?”

These are the thoughts that occupied my mind during class…

And yet here I am, 19 years later, wondering why I am still working purposeless and yet to create my freedom.

It boils down to 2 problems:

• Procrastination

• Fear of failure

Let’s explore them.

Procrastination

I am the type of person who has millions of ideas, gets excited for new hobbies and loves starting new projects.

I say things like:

“I want to start a business”

“I want to be a content creator”

“I want to start a YouTube channel”

I get excited at the ideas.

I spend a lot of time in my head thinking about how to start.

But then I never execute.

The idea loses its excitement and the reality of having to start building kicks in.

All talk, no action. 

Procrastination.

Fear of failure

When I’ve finally managed to get started building a project, this other phenomenon happens.

I get obsessed over the quality.

For example, writing.

I put a lot of effort into my weekly Journal and daily Longform tweets. Some get more attention than others, depending on the topic and how passionate I am.

But oftentimes I’m scared to post them, because of the amount of effort I’ve put in.

I start worrying:

- That it won’t perform. 

- People won’t like it. 

- It won’t get many views or comments.

Therefore I get stuck in this perfectionist trap.

I don’t want to release it because I fear it won’t perform. 

I keep thinking of ways to make it better based on that fear and it gets stuck in limbo, not moving, not getting posted, not surfacing the internet.

Fear of failure.

Solution?

Purpose.

If you don’t have a purpose, there’s no reason to create.

There’s nothing deep inside that's burning, causing you to act.

If you aren’t experiencing some kind of pain from not living your dream life, then you will keep procrastinating and fear failing.

Purpose can be something as simple as wanting to see change in your or someone else's life.

Perhaps you have big dreams and want to see change in the world.

This is my purpose:

- Help introverts

- F*ck off Anxiety

- Build confidence

- Destroy depression

- Reset certain stigmas

- Make happiness trend

- Promote self knowledge

- Join the creator revolution

- Master the art of presence

- Influence equality in society

I’d love to leave this world knowing I had some sort of influence in human behaviour, even if I inspire a small tribe of people, I’ve won.

This list drives me to perform.

The fear of not achieving my purpose outweighs the fear of failure.

It’s my mantra that reminds me of why I’m building a personal brand.

So what is your purpose?

What are the changes you want to see in the world, in people, in your own life?

What are the consequences of not achieving that purpose?

These are questions I reflect on while journaling, they give me motivation to keep creating.

But most important they help me push through procrastination and fear of failure.

If you want help navigating self doubt and procrastination, I’ve got 2/5 free coaching spots open this month.

I’ll help you destroy self limiting beliefs, get you creating content and a standout personal brand in no time.

As always, 

Thank you for your attention, friends.

- Jono