I have a tendency to put things off.

Important things. Like…oh…I don’t know. Making a living?

Not in the general sense of “I’m going to play today, screw working.”

More in the specific sense of not doing “the key things that need to be done in order to move this venture forward”  – and instead, spending lots of time on Twitter working on less important tasks.

And it’s not like I don’t know better.

My problem isn’t that I’m lazy and disorganized. And it’s not that my priorities are out of order.

I grok Steven Covey’s whole First Things First thing. I know what my “Quadrant II – Important, but not Urgent” tasks are. I even have a prioritized “to do” list, so I don’t forget things.

And yet, I find myself putting off important (even urgent) stuff. For days weeks months. Things like:

• Following up on leads
• Returning phone calls and emails
• Publishing the sales page for my first product

That last item? Publish sales page? I’ve been stuck on that one for some time.

I came up with an idea and I wrote the first draft of the sales page back in APRIL.

APRIL! It’s the end of August now.

For nearly 5 months I’ve had “post sales page” on my list…and I haven’t done it.

Why? Because it scares me.

I have a pattern: the tasks I put off usually involve contacting people, putting myself out there and risking failure or rejection.

And so it is with the sales page.

I have this incredible push-pull thing going on inside. I really, really, really want to launch this thing. I think it can help people. I think it can help me. I’m excited.

And…I’m scared. What if no one signs up? What if people send me nasty emails? What if I lose some of my 63 loyal blog subscribers?

What to do?

The problem with things like this is that they seem *really simple* on the surface. Click the “publish” button. Dial the phone. What’s the big deal?

The big deal lies in the repercussions. What could publishing or dialing lead to? And a lot of the fear lies in that unknown.

I have some questions I ask myself when I’m deciding whether or not to do something scary.

What’s the worst thing that can happen?

This is – hands down – my favourite and most useful question. I imagine not only the worst *realistic* thing…I exaggerate the hell out of it. The absolute worst thing imaginable. Usually this makes me laugh. Then I imagine writing a funny post about it…or telling the story on stage or to my friends.

Often, this is enough to persuade me to do it. Because the funny story potential? Makes me almost *hope* it will go sideways.

And what will I do about it?

If the amusing story potential isn’t enough, I’ll ask a few more questions about that worst case:

• Can I live with it?
• What would I do about it?
• Will it matter a year from now?

While I can’t imagine every possible thing that might go wrong, I find that looking at a few possibilities, then considering how I would respond, boosts my self confidence. It’s a reminder that, yes, I’m clever and I can solve problems. (And you are too!)

The final “will it matter a year from now” usually gives me pretty good perspective. Especially when it’s something like making a phone call or publishing a blog post…the reality is that even if it goes *really* badly, it will likely be forgotten in a matter of days. Minutes, even.

What if it goes well?

And then there’s the upside. I don’t mean weighing the possible good over the possible bad. I wouldn’t consider doing something in the first place unless there was an upside.

No. The value in this question is that it often uncovers the *real* fear or concern. I’ve scuttled several programming projects by asking myself what would happen if they were successful.

The key here is to imagine that whatever you do works. You follow up on a lead and land the client. What happens next? What would that actually look like on a day to day basis? And as Steve Pavlina advises: look at REAL, not IDEAL.

In the case of the software projects, I saw that I would be spending time each day on things like customer support and bug fixes. Or I would have to hire, train and supervise an employee. Neither of these cases appealed to me. It wasn’t fear that was holding me back, it was my inner good judgment.

I’ve decided already! But I’m still stuck

This is the frustrating place I found myself with my new product/service.

I analyzed the whole thing to death. Looked at the worst case scenario. Looked at the upside and the downside. Mapped out strategies and asked my helpful questions.

And I determined that launching this thing would probably not be fatal. It cannot kill me… Quite the opposite: it can only make me stronger, braver, more knowledgeable.

If it fails miserably, it will make a great story or blog post. And it won’t matter a year from now. There is no downside if it is wildly successful.

So I decided to do it.

5 months ago.

The waiting is the hardest part

I know that I WILL do it. Eventually. And the waiting? The putting off? It’s torturous.

But not quite torturous enough to actually do it. Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh.

For some reason, I find myself stuck here time and again. Poised on the brink. Fully decided. And yet unable to bring myself to do that last/first/next critical step: dial, send, publish.

And in this case?

The whole thing is oddly/amusingly/annoyingly recursive – seems the product (service?) that I’m agonizing over launching would help with the exact situation I am describing.

Not surprisingly, seems I designed the thing for myself.

I’m calling it  That One Damned Phone Call. It’s all about getting that last little nudge of support, motivation and accountability to just get the damned thing over with already. It’s cheap and the first one runs on Wednesday.

Whew!

I guess I did it.

And as always: I wish I had done it sooner.

How about you? Anything you’ve been putting off? Tricks for getting past that final bit of resistance and getting on with it? Tell me about it in the comments. I promise I’ll come back and read them when I’m done hiding under the bed.

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Tagged as: business, fear, growth