Procrastination, Perfectionism and Sharing Goals

Kobe Bryant in a post game interview after Game 2 in the 2009 NBA Finals before the infamous "job's not finished" quote.

“Somewhere between I want it and I got it” are lyrics from the song Furthest Thing by Drake.

This song explores different themes but what stands out to me is hard work and the importance of working hard in silence and celebrating when the time is right. This song paired with Kobe Bryant’s response to why he isn’t happy despite having a 2-0 lead in the 2009 NBA finals are the inspirations for today’s post.

The idea of not sharing the things that you’re doing until completion isn’t one that’s new to me. It’s something that I have subscribed to but also struggled with. With my close ones, I used to go into great detail about my goals. Some of which include:

Building a startup
Getting new freelance clients
Writing new posts

Sharing always came with external validation as well as an instant release of dopamine. But I never ended up actually doing anything. This is because I was best friends with the two dangerous P’s, procrastination and perfectionism. It got to a point where a close friend of mine in conversation questioned me on a goal I kept mentioning, saying “you’ve been talking about this for months but where is it”.

Something needed to change. From that point onwards I was determined on putting my head down and working in silence. “Stay down until you’re up” was the mindset (inspired by Gym TikTok) that I now aligned with. Previously mentioned in another post of mine, I wanted to let my work speak for me. I wanted to work in silence and talk about everything after I’d achieved it.

But if I’m being honest, this wasn’t the only reason I didn’t want to share things. It also stemmed from wanting to look like I had everything figured out and only sharing things when I could speak from a place of reflection as a pro, rather than being vulnerable, learning and growing in public.

Rather than lean on either side of two extremes, I have been trying to strike a balance. Now, when I share what I’m doing, I don’t do it for a dopamine rush or external validation. I’ve realised that it’s in the boring, mundane tasks where most of the progress is made towards our goals as people. Although I used to think it was a cliché, I now understand the importance of falling in love with the journey and not the destination.

I was going through my camera roll on my phone and saw a tweet that said:

“I used to think self-promotion was a really icky concept & practice, until I realized that the actual self-centered thing is to believe that people will just flock to your work (based on talent/"merit") without you having to say anything about it/support readers in finding it”

This summarises my thoughts on self promotion and sharing the journey. I want to fully embrace the beauty of vulnerability without being at the destination.