Why you procrastinate on the things that matter most

You've been thinking about it for two years. The website that would let you go freelance, the podcast, the book, the case for a promotion you'd need to build with the right numbers. Every evening after dinner you open your laptop to get started. And then you tidy up your desktop folders, update your LinkedIn profile, read an article on how to be more productive, answer an email that could have waited. At eleven you close it all down and tell yourself, "Monday I'll start for real." Monday comes, and it all happens again. If you've ever wondered why you procrastinate on exactly the things you care about most, Steven Pressfield has an answer you won't like, but one that sets you free.

The life you're not living

Steven Pressfield wrote novels like The Legend of Bagger Vance and Gates of Fire. Before he broke through, he spent years spinning his wheels, starting things and dropping them halfway. In his best-known book, The War of Art, he names the force that held him back: Resistance.

"Most of us have two lives," he writes. "The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance."

You already know what he means. The treadmill you bought in January that's now a clothes rack. The course you quit halfway through. The plan to go out on your own that stays a plan, year after year. Pressfield talks about the writer who doesn't write, the painter who doesn't paint, the entrepreneur who never starts a venture. If that sounds like you, you know Resistance.

Why you procrastinate: Resistance in disguise

Resistance never shows up as what it really is, which is fear. It dresses up as good reasons. "I need to do more research first." "It's not the right time, work is crazy right now." "I need better gear." Resistance, Pressfield says, will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.

And its favorite disguise is procrastination, because it's the easiest to rationalize. We never tell ourselves, "I'm never going to write my book." We say, "I'm going to write my book; I'm just going to start tomorrow." That way the project stays alive in our intentions and dead in reality.

Pressfield makes one more thing clear. Resistance isn't an outside enemy. It's not your boss, your family or your lack of time. It comes from within. And it isn't out to get you personally. It's an impersonal force that hits anyone who tries to do something that matters.

The more it matters, the scarier it gets

Here's the idea that turns everything around. Pressfield calls it a rule of thumb: the more important a call or action is to your growth, the more Resistance you'll feel toward pursuing it.

That means fear isn't a signal to stop. It's an indicator. If a project terrifies you, it's probably exactly what you need to do. If you didn't care, you wouldn't feel anything. That's why the projects you've been putting off the longest are almost always the ones you care about most.

And don't wait for the fear to go away. Pressfield points out that the actor Henry Fonda was still throwing up before every stage performance at seventy-five. Fear doesn't go away. You go on stage anyway.

Stop being an amateur

So how do you beat Resistance? By turning pro. And here Pressfield makes a point that applies directly to you: at work, you're already a professional.

You show up every day, even when you don't feel like it. You show up no matter what, with a cold or after a bad night's sleep. You stay at it all day, even when your mind wanders. You don't wait for inspiration to open your inbox or put together a report. You just do it.

With the project you really care about, though, you act like an amateur: you wait for the right moment, the right mood, a free weekend. When someone asked the writer Somerset Maugham whether he wrote on a schedule or only when inspiration struck, he replied: "I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp."

It's the same idea behind the difference between talent and effort: it's not the person who waits to feel ready who wins, it's the one who shows up every day.

Your nine o'clock sharp

Today you don't have to finish the project. You just have to stop treating it like an amateur.

1. Name what you're putting off. One thing only, the one that's been on your mind the longest. Write it down.
2. Look the fear in the eye. Next to it, write what scares you about it. The stronger the fear, the more it matters to you.
3. Set your nine o'clock sharp. A specific time, three or four times a week, even just thirty minutes. Put it on your calendar like a client meeting.
4. Show up, no matter what. Tired, unmotivated, uninspired: sit down anyway and start. Inspiration comes after, not before.

Monday will come around again. This time, when your nine o'clock strikes, make sure you're already at work.