Fear of...

As I read further in my book I realize that there's more to procrastination than just fear of success and failure.

Fear of Success and Failure (more in depth)

People who procrastinate because they fear failure believe they have to meet a certain standard. They are afraid that if they don't meet that standard they are somehow less. It's possible that they have the ability and could easily meet that standard, but they choose to sabotage themselves and procrastinate. Dr. Beery states this mindset into an equation:

Self Worth=Ability=Performance

(Burka and Yuen 21)

Now the problem with this mindset is that your performance is directly related to your self worth. If you apply this to every situation you're not going to have a high self-esteem. Say you decide to try a new sport, soccer for example, and you make the team! During your first practice, you miss every opportunity to score a goal, somehow slipping or missing the shot completely. You leave feeling defeated. You believe that since you didn't make a goal you are somehow incompetent at soccer, forgetting the fact that this is your first time playing soccer. You feel as though your self worth is directly connected to how many goals you can score.

Procrastination fits into this equation between ability and performance. The connection between self worth and performance is broken by procrastination. Procrastination is easier to blame for a poor essay than yourself. You can always say "I could have done better on that essay if I hadn't procrastinated" instead of taking the responsibility for the bad grade.

Now the flip side, people who procrastinate because they fear success believe that if they achieve a goal, it will somehow hurt someone. For example: "Teresa went to work to augment the family income. Her husband, Tony, was a building contactor whose business had hit the hard times. Teresa started making good money on commissions at her sales job. But instead of capitalizing on her success, she got so far behind on her paperwork that her job was threatened. 'I was afraid to tell Tony about my commissions because I didn't want to hurt his pride. It wasn't his fault that his business was bad and I was making more money'" (Burka and Yuen 40). Jane believes that if she was to capitalize on her commissions her husband's pride would be hurt, which in reality probably isn't the case. He would more likely be happy that there's more money flowing towards the family income rather than hurt that Teresa is making more money than him.

Another example similar to the situation of Teresa is college students with parents that did not attend college. "I love my family, but I feel I'm leaving them behind, and I know that hurts them" (Burka and Yuen 41). Many colleges student in this situation feel this turmoil. They want to make their parents proud, knowing the sacrifices they have made for them to attend college, but they feel as though they are leaving their parents in the dust so to say. Identifying why you procrastinate is the first step to figure out how to stop it. Why do your procrastinate? Do you fear failing and not being good enough? Are you afraid of hurting a loved one by your success? Or is it neither?