What the Duck is Procrastination?

I actually procrastinated to begin writing this...

I should probably close all the other tabs. One sec, be right back.

Ok wow, that took longer than it should have lol.

So I heard someone say that procrastination is actually your mind trying to protect you from something? My guess is that it is trying to protect us from wasting energy unnecessarily. But why would it be labeled as "unnecessarily"? Is there a lack of faith involved?

This makes me think about the Wright brothers, the guys that invented the airplane. I wonder why they didn't procrastinate in the invention of the airplane? Or was there a period in the beginning when they hesitated to begin their experiments?

I just watched this short clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDXUdNvn0U 

In this clip, Simon Sinek mentions that the Wright brothers were motivated by the idea that their invention would benefit the world. They were focused on SERVING OTHERS. Now I have to ask myself... how were they so sure that it was going to work? (According to Wikipedia, the Wright brothers first learned about man-made flying objects when their father gave them a toy helicopter made of bamboo, cork. paper and a rubber band to twirl its rotor.) It looks like they also had faith in an aviation pioneer from Germany named Otto Lilienthal, and after this man's death in an aviation attempt the Wright brothers decided to get serious about their flight research. Also it looks like Orville Wright was the brains, and Wilbur Wright was the leader. Amazing. The Wright brothers learned from the mistakes of other aviation pioneers, especially the ones that died during their aviation trials. I think one thing that made them feel safe to continue trying was the fact that their bicycle business provided them with consistent income while they were attempting to invent the airplane, and because of this they did not feel the fear of running out of funds. That fear would have triggered procrastination. Fortunately for ALL of us they had the funds to continue trying. (Now I see a pattern between them and SpaceX...)

OK!

So what have we learned? And what is my hypothesis? It is this:

If fear is decreased then procrastination is also decreased.

So I have to ask myself... what made me procrastinate to begin writing this post? The fear that... it wouldn't be fun enough? 

But why wouldn't it feel fun enough? Maybe because... in my free time I have been experiencing too much pleasure to the point of getting desensitized to how fun writing can be?

I think there has been a miscalculation in my brain, and that is the idea that: pleasure = safety. This might just be a human survival mechanism which would be helpful if I lived in the jungle like a hunter gatherer, but in 2024 it is actually not relevant anymore. If pleasure did in fact equal to safety then I should just shoot up heroine daily right? But we all know that it wouldn't work, high consumptions of pleasure make one get hooked to it and that is NOT SAFE OR HEALTHY AT ALL.

So how to help my brain to realize that pleasure in fact IS NOT safety. Now this makes me wonder about safety... safety from WHAT? Does my brain think that discomfort is dangerous? Do I have to rewire myself to belief that discomfort is FUN? I mean... I already do believe that when I watch a scary movie or ride a roller coaster. In both of those cases I CHOOSE to experience that discomfort. 

That might be it... I should make more of an effort to CHOOSE discomfort. It should be fun! I should begin with something doable, and slowly but surely take it up a notch every time.

Ok jeez so how we can clearly state the conclusions?

Decrease of pleasure seeking during free time = Decrease of procrastination during work time

Is it possible that if we decrease pleasure seeking during free time, then our work time BECOMES THE PLEASURE THAT WE WERE SEEKING? And therefore PROCRASTINATION WOULDN'T EXIST ANYMORE?! Is that how Elon Musk does it? His work IS ALSO HIS PLEASURE?

So many questions :)

I would love to know your thoughts on this. Feel free to comment on this page or reach out to me via Instagram: @lux__saigon

Much love!