Anth Quinn

Judging by the amount of comments on the last post about getting specific on what you actually fear, this is an important subject to you, so I’ll be adding more future posts addressing some the issues and insights mentioned.

This article introduces a simple way to begin to stop procrastinating and become productive as move out of your comfort zone while managing your level of risk. While it’s not sexy or “mystic” it is very powerful. This approach allows people to manage the risks of extremely dangerous situations so it will help you begin to take effective action when you have been held back by your fears.

Let’s assume you’ve asked the questions and got clear on the specific consequences that you fear may result if you take the action you have been procrastinating on and you’re still scared.

What can you do to reduce the fear?

Is it all about taking action in the face of fear? Telling yourself to “just believe” and “act as if?”

No! There is a very simple technique that is used by the people who go into the world’s most dangerous environments and I’m goingto introduce it here.

First you could ask is the fear appropriate?

If you’re thinking of going into an old abandoned mine with a rusty old flashlight then fear keeping you out might be a good thing. But even then this approach will help keep you safe.

Remember some fear is useful, what we’re looking for here is to manage and overcome fear which stands in the way of what you want to achieve.

For example for years I procrastinated over trying some particular rock climbs which I felt I might be able to do, but I was scared so I put them off until “later” when I was less scared.

I read widely on overcoming fear and a lot of the advice out there was just unhelpful

“Awe c’mon buddy – just break through your fears, what’s the worst thing that can happen?” Well, with some of the routes I was considering that was pretty bad!!

The other bit of advice people in the personal development world were giving out freely was just “believe you can do it” and “act as if” held the potential for very painful feedback! Or very FINAL feedback :o)

So what is was the answer!

Well, I never thought my years of safety management would come in useful again, but it occurred to me that while belief, acting as if etc. are essential and all have their part to play, what you really need something else to help you assess risk!

Fear will keep you alive, but it can also keep you stuck. By understanding how to assess risk, you can thrive in dangerous environments where the just be “just believe crowd” wouldn’t last 5 minutes!

How would you feel if the head of the local power station said that you didn’t need to worry because he was acting “as if” he could keep you safe and he believed you’d be fine – Chances are you’d want him to do more than believe it was OK!

So what about you, how can you apply “Risk Analysis” thinking to overcome your fear driven procrastinating?

1. Start by getting clear on what it is you fear happening if you take this action?

2. Ask yourself how severe the consequences would really be? – give it a score between 1-3

3. Ask yourself how likely is this happening? Again give yourself a score between 1-3

4. Now multiply these scores together to get you total risk score

5. Now you can ask yourself: what controls or changes could I make to reduce the severity and/or likelihood?

6. Redo steps 2, 3 and 4 Keep working on this until you have found a level of action which you are comfortable taking, then take that action

To get the best out of this get a supportive friend in to help you by asking questions and challenging your limiting beliefs as you go through the process together– this will have a huge effect on your ability to move forward.

If you’re not sure about the real potential consequences who could you ask?

While this may seem a bit long winded at first, once you’ve done a couple you’ll find your old fear driven procrastinating behaviours replaced by curiosity driven problem solving as you begin to take continuous small steps towards your goals.

So what happened with the rock climbs? Well I began to get on and climb the well protected (reduced the consequences of failure) or easier ones (reducing likelihood of falling off) and funnily enough the more practice the got the better I got. Some climbs I just decided were too hard or risky for me at the time and I crossed them off my list as not realistic for the time being.

Adopting this approach led to less procrastinating, less fear, and I had more fun as I improved, then I bought a mountain bike but that’s a whole other story! :o)

Bottom line?

Risk and Safety management might seem boring at first but if you are someone who has allowed “vague” fears to fuel your procrastinating I think you’re going to be really surprised how much more easily you move forward as you begin to play with getting specific and managing your risk before taking action in the days and weeks ahead.

So why not take something where you believe fear has been holding you back and have a play with this risk management approach?

If it keeps people safe who are working in potentially hazardous environments on offshore oil platforms, space missions, and nuclear installations what might you try as you learn to take action and keep the risks down.

How much more confident do you think you’d be when you’ve built up a track record of small successes?

What would you try if you knew how to make it safe to fail and learn?

Anth.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Procrastination. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.