In college, I was a severe procrastinator. But I was one of those people who could do things at the last minute and still do well.
But it was never pleasant.
In retrospect, I was living in fear without realizing it.
Fear of the discomfort of learning new things.
Fear of the boredom of studying things I didn't feel like studying.
Fear of not being sure where to start...in my financial life, my practicing, and my studying.
And so, I would procrastinate. Almost like an auto-trigger, I would do almost anything aside from taking real action.
Sleeping in. Reading non-school books. Watching movies. Playing video games. Going out to eat.
If there was a fun activity to put off doing the real work, I went with that every time.
Funny how hindsight works.
Had I been more mindful at the time, I would have understood the real antidote to fear. Not putting it off and doing pleasurable things to avoid it. That just makes it all worse.
The real antidote is action.
When you take action, it makes fear go away every time. By doing the work, you figure things out. Even if you make mistakes along the way.
It's hard. The lizard brain screams at you to do something else. But, when you become the person who stubbornly takes action every time, you conquer fear.
And when you dance with fear, you discover something interesting.
That the things you're afraid of are the things you need to take action on the most.