This piece was short, but it reads well. You’re definitely not a non-writer. You should keep at it. Look forward to reading more.
Procrastination and the fear of not being good enough
81–90 of 284 posts
Re: Procrastination and the fear of not being good enough
#82I just want to appreciate how the author used the sane "fear of not being good enough" instead of the idiotic "impostor syndrome" that everyone uses to mean the same.
"Imposter syndrome" is just the term we have given to "fear of not being good enough". What is wrong with coming up with a term for that fear?
Re: Procrastination and the fear of not being good enough
#83Worrying what others think resonates with me a lot. Every few weeks I try to motivate myself to write more online (HN, X, blogs) and consistently get “self sabotage” stuck. (Been going on for >2 years) The article just says they pushed through and “put it aside”, but that has never seemed to quite work for me. I can push through once or twice, not enough to build a daily habit/obsession like I want. Anyone have any t…
If you need to force yourself to write, why write at all? Did you use any technique to write this comment?
Re: Procrastination and the fear of not being good enough
#84This resonates so much with me. I’ve even written a blog post a few years ago with almost the same title[0].
It hasn’t really gotten better since then even though I’ve built even more cool stuff since then (hell, I even was #1 on HN for a whole day earlier this year).
Re: Procrastination and the fear of not being good enough
#85One thing to keep in mind is that the vast, overwhelming majority of people in the world, or even your town, don't know who you are and will never be aware of anything you do. This goes even for people who are relatively well known in their field. It's nearly daily I see some story here about someone who is apparently "well known" and my reaction is "Who? I've never heard of this person."
Don't worry about being good enough or what other people will think. The truth is almost nobody even cares.
Re: Procrastination and the fear of not being good enough
#86Worrying what others think resonates with me a lot. Every few weeks I try to motivate myself to write more online (HN, X, blogs) and consistently get “self sabotage” stuck. (Been going on for >2 years) The article just says they pushed through and “put it aside”, but that has never seemed to quite work for me. I can push through once or twice, not enough to build a daily habit/obsession like I want. Anyone have any t…
> Worrying what others think resonates with me a lot.
- There are lots of blog posts and youtube videos about this topic. Try whether any will help you.
- If you post, go down the rabbit hole of your thoughts. What will happen? Keep going with "and then" as far as possible. Then replace negative thoughts with more positive ones. Those have to be believable and not just blindly positive. E.g. replacing "everybody will hate this" with "a lot of people will hate this, but some will really enjoy it" is already progress.
- As a child, did you have a caregiver or teacher that gave you the feeling that if you make mistakes, they will stop loving you? Make it clear to your adult self that you are deserving of love no matter what.
- Do you have types of writing which are easy for you? No matter the answer, why is that?
- Create something intentionally bad without publishing it, and sit with your bad feelings for a while. Usually that reduces the anxiety.
- If you post something, explore your feelings. Is that like nervousness before an exam, general anxiety or something completely different. This might give you a clue, why you struggle.
- Imagine a friend would come to you with this problem. What advice would you give them? How would you react to something you posted if somebody else wrote it?
- Be kind to yourself. Changing this is a long journey.
Re: Procrastination and the fear of not being good enough
#87> This ties into my fear of not being good enough. I’m constantly worried about what others might think of my writing. If I don’t think it’s great, how can I expect anyone else to?
I believe this belongs under the term Perfectionist Dilemma, as defined by Adam Miller [1]:
The perfectionist dilemma is when a creator values the quality of a finished product, such to the extent that it inhibits their ability to iterate, change, and even produce. For many, it’s the ultimate writer’s block, invoking a fear that the finished product isn’t or won’t be as originally intended.
I totally agree with this. I believe it's an instinct feeling, so I'm accepting it as it is.
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1. https://medium.com/@thatadammiller/the-perfectionist-dilemma...
Re: Procrastination and the fear of not being good enough
#88If I had to sum up the reason in one word, it would be laziness. Wild to read this from a modern perspective. It's like reading about women being shamed for being 'hysterical', or religious peasants blaming their natural sexual feelings on demons. It just doesn't hold up to scrutiny... What is 'laziness' when applied to something that you clearly want to do? How can someone want something, yet simultaneously choose t…
Nothing like righteousness to justify poor social behavior. Humans have this tendency, which is why sick people are 'lazy' and society is punitively oriented for behavior correction and norm reinforcement.
Re: Procrastination and the fear of not being good enough
#89I suffered from this. The issue is the ego. Ego has a lot of ideas about itself and others. Ego has such high opinion about itself it only can do great work. Which prevents it from doing anything. It's kind of a way of avoiding failures. Because failures will break the grant ideas about himself OP has created. I accidentally went through a spiritual awakening which diluted ego. I have no problem in doing any kind of…
I know it’s a bit of a personal question, but can you elaborate on your ego diluting experience?
Re: Procrastination and the fear of not being good enough
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Pomodoro technique works well. Set a timer for 15 minutes, and focus only on your writing for until the timer goes off; or longer if you like.
Love Pomodoro timers so much had AI make an web app to link them together. You can customize and use it here: https://1recipe.com .
bayofpigs, I feel it necessary to tell you that your account seems to be shadowbanned? Like 80% of your comments have been [dead]/not shown since your account creation in 2013 and as far as I can see there appears to be no good reason for it? The majority of comments in your history seem entirely reasonable.