“Someday” will never come and “tomorrow” is always a day away. We often use these words to mask either our fear of the future (or the “unknown”), or just plain laziness — so we find reasons to procrastinate. Unfortunately, procrastination is the biggest hurdle to achieving success in any endeavours in life.
We justify the delaying or of not taking any action at all by making ourselves believe that the timing is not right and so wait and wait and wait but as Tim Ferris writes in his bestseller “A 4-Hour Work Week”:
“The Timing Is Never Right. For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks…The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up all the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.”
At times we put off doing any action for the fear that we might fail but failure is just a possibility, not the 100% outcome of our action. It is a wise adage that says “It is far better to have tried and failed than to be forever haunted by the thought that — what if we succeeded had we tried”. Also, the fear of failure, more often than not, is exaggerated. Granted we fail to make it, the result is usually not that devastating to us or to others and in most cases, correctible.
As for the fear of being criticized by others, remember that what others think of you is none of your business. Any action —good or bad—are open to criticisms. It simply is not possible to please everyone. Do not be a prisoner of what others think for that will make you vulnerable to manipulation.
In “A 4-Hour Work Week”, Tim Ferris advises not to ask permission to carry out what you think you should do. “Most people,” he adds, ”are fast to stop you before you get started but hesitant to get in the way if you’re moving”.
If things do not turn out well and may adversely affect others, apologize and try to correct the damage immediately as best as you can. However, do not give them the chance to say “no” initially and preempt you from doing what you did.
As Tim Ferris says, “Get good at being a troublemaker and saying sorry when you really screw up” and move on.