With the current semester winding down, many people are graduating, looking for summer jobs or just planning some other worldly experience that isn’t school. When school ends, the wide open world seems scary and relentless and unconquerable. Going out in to the world becomes a daunting task without the familiarity of school. I often find a sort of “wall” builds up in my head when I try to think about attempting something new, which leads to avoiding this thing, which makes this “wall” higher, which brings me back to the start of this cycle with a lot more anxiety. Why do we build these types of things up so much in our head, blowing them out of proportion?
In short it’s analogous to procrastination, but in the long run it’s limiting our potential to grow, experience new things, and overcome anxiety. Research tends to link building up these walls with perfectionism and fear of failure traits (Muszynski and Akamatsu, 1991). So how do you get past that wall? The best way is to just do something. Really, anything. If the problem is being consumed by your thoughts, then the only thing you can do is get out of your head. Even if that something is only loosely related to the actual task you should be doing, taking a bit of pressure off can be a very powerful tool to help you focus when your mind isn’t going 100 kilometers an hour. Personally, I find coaxing myself into doing only 10 or 20 minutes of a task I don’t want to do really helps put things into perspective. You’ll likely get a bit of momentum from starting, and you’ll likely see that completing a project is slightly more manageable than was built up in your head.
If anything, just focus on how relieved you’ll feel after you’re done. Unfortunately some uncomfortable things are bound to happen in life, but you must at least try. If you’re feeling hopeless, really do just give it a shot, and I promise it will be less scary than you’re thinking it is. Just do it! Be alive! Experience the lows and highs for all they’re worth; explore them.
Written by Taryn Nowak-Stoppel
Sources
Muszynski, S. and Akamatsu, T. (1991). Delay in completion of doctoral dissertations in clinical psychology. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 22(2), pp.119-123.