If anything goes hand in hand, it is fear and procrastination. If the latter seems like gravity that is keeping us grounded to trivial pursuits which keep us from propelling to heights of success, the former is the one ton weight which prevents us from even thinking of taking off.
Fear of not being able to do something, fear from past experience which says you probably succumb to similar results, all leads to not even attempting at certain task be it applying for a new job, starting that essay for college, or learning a new language or skill. And this leads to procrastination, which we all know leads to the dark side, ggghnnm.
Often what I learned about what puts us off from starting something is trying to be perfect. Start first of all. No matter how unsure or inadequate you think you are or your resources are: START. You can work on it later as you progress or at least understand what it is that you are missing.
Now starting and stopping in and of itself isn’t completely without merit. However, this is often lacking in that it doesn’t allow whatever you attempt into a coherent, innate skill which can be utilized at a much later date. I’ve alluded to this principle in my discussion on critical mass and how I’ve attempted to codify it.
One off attempts, unless if you happen to a consummate expert, quite often leads to almost as much merit as not even having attempted it in the first place.
Now what can you do about it?
Well after having beaten fear and or procrastination(I’ll save that for another day) and made that first attempt, don’t scratch it out even if it is less than what you hoped it to be. Keep it.
Ok if it is completely, utterly garbage, ditch it. Some things are just not worth keeping. For e.g. if you decided to wire frame a design of a product or feature and all you have is haphazard lines and smiley faces, then ditch it.
Otherwise, if you have put in the effort, and have the most salient features and concepts pegged down, keep it. It doesn’t have to be pretty; it can be reworked later. Now this is an important part of the first effort too, whilst doing it, constantly reiterate if something is off.
My drawing instructor was adamant that once you put pencil to paper, keep going, don’t stop, don’t lift it off the page – it is the line quality that is utmost, not if it looks OK. Now there is truth to that, but if you are not blessed with the divine gift of drawing, you are usually relegated to stop, start, lift, re-draw and end up with slashes than the singular laying of graphite.
Where this falls short is that, good technique is always necessary but do not neglect the requirement of redoing or reworking something. Remember the old adage practice makes perfect?
For now at least, you are unsure, you are afraid so plunge on ahead, make mistakes.
If it is a job your applying for and you are worried about getting everything right, don’t worry about it being perfect right now. Do the best you can and lay fear aside, everything will be perfect but the point is keep at it, re-work your CV, you cover letter, your presentation. Just as importantly do everything with a positive attitude.
There are myriad tips and articles online (Ok I usually am devoid of paper based products) about what you are doing wrong, or what to do or say. Read them, take them in, but develop the internal store and knowledge steadily and surely. Don’t base everything on them though.
I have interview and job tips from two different continents and what works in one does not work in the other, I can tell you that from experience. Apart from cultural differences, even within the same geographic area there can be myriad of factors that could come into play.
The one thing that evens it out is to compile a set of skills relevant to the area, keep honing proper habits and virtues, and the knowledge that when all that is required of you has been done repeatedly and surely to a razor sharp finesse, you’ll have everything you’ll ever need to accomplish anything you set your mind to.
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