This is just a name I made up, it probably has a real name, but anyway I needed a title. The blocking element, as I call it, is a task, a desire, a thought, or just a possible action that you constantly have on your mind and which you’re not doing. It seems to be closely related to procrastination. I feel it all the time, that “I have to do …, but before I have to do …”. You have a task A, that you wait for the right time to accomplish it, and you have task B, which relies on the completion of A, and maybe you have C that relies on A and/or B and so on. So if you’re still following up to here, the blocking element is task A, and will become task B once the first is done and so on. I’m pretty sure it’s human nature to have more projects than time to accomplish them, so to me the problem isn’t the projects and ideas themselves but more of how we can be able to take as much as we can out of our head and put them in real life.
It can be anything, for me it can be as simple as to say that I can’t play video games if I haven’t at least written a few lines on an article. Or it can be more complex like not being able to put as much effort as I want into my training program because I work too much and I’m too tired. And it can be a lot more complex, these are just example that came to me at the moment.
There is two categories, one that you have power on, and the other that you don’t. The two examples above are totally in my control. I could decide to concentrate and write an article, then play video games, or play video games first then write. For the second, I also have the choice, I could just find an easier job, or ask my boss to reduce my workload, or I could change my workout plan to make it fit better with my current lifestyle. These are not necessarily easy choices to make, but they are in your reach nonetheless. But we don’t have the power over everything, let’s say you want to be a graphic designer but you don’t have the qualifications to get a job in this field. So unless you managed to become really skilled by yourself and being also able to prove it to potential employers, you’ll have to go to art school to get a degree proving that you can actually do the job. In that case, “task A: getting an art degree” is required before “task B: find a graphic designer job” and you can’t make it faster than the actual time it takes to do take the degree. I won’t talk about this particular one because there is nothing else to do than wait.
What I have more interest in, is what we can actually change. I didn’t find any magic trick to allow myself to procrastinate less and act more, I think it’s mostly just a matter of self-discipline and I can’t really give advice about that.
Remember that scene from one of Harry Potter’s movies where he has to catch a flying key? I feel like all my ideas and tasks are floating around in my head like those keys. I now try to write most of these ideas somewhere so it feels less like a mess and I can concentrate more on doing than worrying.
I noticed that when I wait for something to happen, nothing moves and nothing happens, but when I finally decide to act (understand here: do task B before task A), everything seem to just fall in place. Maybe not in the way I first thought it would, but it comes to an end anyway and this is what’s important, to get things done. I’ll give you an example that happened not long ago. So I was looking to find a programming job, and seeing that there wasn’t much choice where I live, I sent an application for a job in a city far enough so that I would have to move there if I got the job. I got a phone interview and then 2-3 weeks passed without news. At that moment I just thought that they chose someone else. But the thing is that I was waiting on this to decide if I was to renew my lease for the apartment I am currently living in. I finally just said to myself “f**t it I’ll stay here another year”, signed the renew form, and you know what? The next day I got a email from the company.
Take it any way you want, whether it could just have been bad luck or a sign from the universe that I wasn’t meant to go there, I made a choice and acted towards it, and the block was cleared. I can now concentrate on another blocking element, and another, and another, etc, until I die. But don’t go thinking that blocking elements are only related to “formal” things like paperwork and “adult” tasks and responsibilities. If for example, you’re a musician, and are telling yourself something like “When I’ll be good enough at playing my instrument, I’ll play in a band”, you’re blocking yourself too. Because there is no such thing as “being good enough to…”. Practicing will make you better, of course, and so is playing in a band, for totally different reasons. There is musicians of every level so you have the possibility to find people at the same level as you and there can even be some people willing to give you a chance anyway, you have to try.
In the end, the amount of blocking elements you’ll be able to clear is proportional to what you’ll be able to accomplish. The more you’ll clear blocks, the more you’ll move forward to your goals and the more you’ll give yourself the chance to reach success in the things that are important to you.