One of the biggest deadlines of your career is looming over you like the shadow of the grim reaper, and all you can do is think: “I’m going to fail!”
So what do you do?
Your ability to confidently change your mindset can completely alter the course of your career and personal life. If you shift from a threat-mindset (fearing things as danger to your existence) to an opportunity-mindset (anticipating challenges that help you grow and learn) your happiness and likelihood of success will skyrocket.
Most people are frightened by failure; however successful people learn to use that fear as fuel. Perpetual under-performers continuously succumb to one of the most common forms of fear: procrastination. They see big opportunities as threats, and so they flee in one form or another. Socrates famously wondered why if you judge an action to be the best, you will do anything but that action.
After interviewing more than three-dozen of the world’s top neuroscientists for my upcoming book Fear is Fuel, the Surprising Power to Find Purpose, Passion and Performance, science has proven that it’s our wiring that determines our mindset. The good news is that there is something called neuroplasticity, which allows us to change our wiring at any age. No matter what we were like in the past, we can change. You can change. I can change. Even your pain-in-the-ass boss can change.
Now back to answering Socrates’ questions. The reason we procrastinate, neuroscientists now know, is due to the two-million-year-old piece of software we run on our lizard brain. That part of our brain only cares about passing our genes on to the next generation – procreation and survival. These instincts or immediate reactions begin with an F… fight, flight, freeze, food or f*ck make up our survival actions. Satiating what we want to do right now is the principle job of the amygdala and limbic system. It’s why we procrastinate and why it’s hard to delay gratification.
The adult-supervision part of our brain is called the pre-frontal cortex (PFC). The PFC can make multi-level decisions into the future. In other words “If I do A, either B or C will happen.” “If I do X, then W, Y or C could happen.” The pre-frontal cortex is the newest part of our brain and it’s also closely related to our courage center. The PFC is newer and less powerful, so it takes practice to override the limbic system to change that mindset rut you’re stuck in. But it is possible. Here are three ways to remove the power from the lizard brain
Reframe what you have to do as an exciting and fun challenge
Knowing that if you even try to work on a project, if you make an effort, you’ll be better off than just worrying and procrastinating. We only decide two ways (as I outlined in my Fear is Fuel book) out of fear or out of opportunity. Make sure you focus on the positive opportunity and how your life will get better by crushing this project.
Do six minutes of shit
Pick the worst task or the thing you are dreading most about the project and do that for the first six minutes. Stay focused for six uninterrupted minutes. This forces you to take a bite out of the project in a way you can manage and quickly see the end of. I used this at my companies with sales teams all the time. If they were afraid of cold calling, I’d have them do the first six minutes of every hour that they were at their desk making calls. It worked like a charm.
Publicly ask for help
Announce your project to people you work or live with and let them know what your schedule is. Ask them to hold you to deadlines and to remind you that you can do a great job.
Another great tactic that I outline in the book is called the pre-meditation of evil. It’s a Stoic Philosophy that can change your perspective on any situation, but it takes more time to explain and implement.
If you liked this article you’ll love the book Fear is Fuel – please buy it and leave me a great review on Amazon! Don’t forget to enter the pre-order contest and win a chance to go for a one-on-one bike ride with Lance Armstrong or an adventure weekend with me facing your fears!