I Know What to Do So Why Don't I Do It?

I Know What to Do So Why Don't I Do It? Plot Summary

Introduction

We all know the feeling of setting ambitious goals, making detailed plans, and then watching as those intentions drift away, unrealized. Whether it's a career aspiration, a fitness goal, or even simple daily tasks, the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it can feel like a vast, unbridgeable chasm. This universal human experience isn't just frustrating—it can make us question our capabilities, our commitment, and even our character. But what if procrastination isn't actually about poor time management? What if your struggle to follow through has little to do with laziness and everything to do with how you handle emotions? The truth is that your emotions drive your behaviors far more powerfully than your rational thoughts. Understanding this connection opens a completely new approach to achieving your goals. Instead of fighting against yourself, you can learn to work with your emotions, transforming fear into motivation, breaking destructive habit loops, and aligning your deepest values with your daily actions. This emotional intelligence approach doesn't just help you complete tasks—it empowers you to build a life of meaningful achievement.

Chapter 1: Recognize Procrastination as Emotion Management

Procrastination is fundamentally misunderstood. While most people view it as a time-management issue or a character flaw, it's actually an emotion-management problem. When you put off important tasks, you're not failing to organize your time effectively—you're avoiding negative emotions like anxiety, boredom, or fear of failure that these tasks trigger. Consider the story of a company's critical product launch decision. The timing must be perfect—release too early before testing is complete, and the company's reputation suffers; release too late after competitors, and millions in sales are lost. You've been tasked with compiling detailed market analysis data that's essential for making this decision. Despite accepting this responsibility over a month ago, with the deadline just a week away, you haven't even started. This isn't because you lack time or ability—it's because the emotions surrounding the task feel overwhelming. What many share in common is a tendency to delay starting important tasks until it becomes a habit. Even simple tasks get postponed. The problem is that when you move a time-sensitive task to the back burner, it may be out of sight but never out of mind. These constant reminders trigger a gradual increase in anxiety as you reflect on the consequences of either missing the deadline or rushing and producing inferior work. This anxiety then further reduces your motivation to start, creating a vicious cycle. The irony is that what we think is escaping stress actually creates more of it. This is why Nike's clever slogan "Just Do It" isn't actually helpful advice for overcoming procrastination. Willpower isn't a skill you can hone through practice and summon on demand. It functions more like a muscle that can wear down and tire after excessive use. Research shows that the more motivation required to achieve a goal, the less willpower you'll have available afterward. To break the procrastination cycle, you need to recognize it as an emotion-management problem rather than a time-management issue. By addressing the underlying emotions that trigger avoidance behavior, you can develop strategies that work with your emotional nature rather than against it. This means understanding what emotions are driving your procrastination and finding ways to make starting tasks less emotionally threatening. Remember that procrastination is delaying the start of an undertaking, not the inability to finish tasks. The key is learning to handle the emotions that prevent you from beginning, whether that means breaking projects into less intimidating chunks, associating tasks with immediate rewards, or sometimes even allowing yourself reflective time to properly plan and prepare.

Chapter 2: Harness Emotions to Drive Action

Emotions are far more than just feelings—they are powerful motivational forces that drive our behaviors. The word "motivation" shares the same Latin root with "emotion," which means "to move." Your emotions serve as the vital link between your beliefs and how you conduct your life, impacting everything from your immune system to your memory and ability to perform. A powerful example comes from a comparison of two FBI agents' responses in life-threatening situations. One agent was on a drug stakeout when gunfire erupted. When the shooting temporarily stopped, he stood, took aim, and killed the criminal with a single bullet at over 50 yards. The second agent, during a different incident, fired at a gunman at point-blank range but missed every shot, despite being an excellent marksman like all FBI agents. The difference? The first agent had played competitive sports throughout his life. Under stress, his body automatically reverted to a familiar competitive stance—his core belief that winning was vital became a source of calm focus. The second agent, who never participated in competitive sports and held strong religious beliefs about taking human life, found himself in conflict with his core values despite the clear threat. This illustrates how our deepest beliefs shape our emotional responses, which in turn determine our actions. Neither agent's belief system was inherently better, but the match between belief and circumstance proved critical. When there's alignment between your beliefs and your actions, your emotions work for you rather than against you. All emotions serve a purpose and can be either positive or negative depending on context. Anger, often categorized as negative, can be destructive when misdirected at loved ones. But when used as motivation to identify and appropriately express concerns about an underlying problem, anger becomes constructive. Similarly, love, typically seen as positive, can become destructive when directed inappropriately or when it creates unhealthy dependency. When emotions interfere with your ability to take action, try this simple technique: translate your emotions into language. Talk out loud or write about what's triggering your feelings. This allows you to evaluate the problem through a different sensory modality, providing a new perspective for identifying solutions. First, identify the specific emotion you're experiencing—sadness, anger, fear, guilt? Next, identify its source. Then evaluate your reaction realistically, replacing exaggerated thoughts with more rational ones. By managing your emotions rather than being managed by them, you transform potential obstacles into stepping stones. The emotions that once prevented action become the very fuel that propels you forward. Remember that emotions exist to motivate you to meet unmet needs—the key is ensuring they're working for your goals rather than against them.

Chapter 3: Transform Fear of Failure into Motivation

Of all emotions that trigger procrastination, fear of failure stands as the most powerful. This fear doesn't exist in isolation—it often combines with other emotions like anger, sadness, and regret, making it particularly challenging to overcome. The story of a young immigrant provides a perfect illustration of how these emotions drive behavior. At age ten, Nick Hall arrived in the United States from England, excited about the new country but sad about leaving friends behind. Adjusting to school proved especially difficult. Despite speaking English, his pronounced accent and unfamiliar customs made him a target for ridicule. When he walked into class wearing his English school uniform—blazer, tie, and knee socks—the taunting began immediately. Then came the "restroom break" announcement, a term completely foreign to him. Not wanting to reveal his ignorance, he tried to deduce what it meant. All he could think was that "restroom" must be related to "restaurant," especially since it was late morning. Imagine his embarrassment when he was the only kid standing at a urinal holding a sandwich! Faced with sadness from missing friends, fear of further embarrassment, and anger at having no say in the move, he had two choices: avoid these negative emotions by escaping school (perhaps by feigning illness) or work to change what he could while accepting what he couldn't. He chose the latter, deciding to study American culture through comic books. This led to more embarrassment when he greeted classmates with "Hi, buster"—which with his accent sounded like a profanity, landing him in the principal's office. Yet these emotions ultimately drove him to adapt and improve. This experience demonstrates how emotions like fear can either paralyze us or motivate positive change. Fear is especially powerful because it evolved to ensure survival—better to waste energy fearing something that doesn't happen than to ignore a warning about something that does. But this same mechanism can prevent us from taking necessary risks to achieve our goals. A powerful technique for overcoming fear of failure is to transform it into fear of regret. Research by economists shows that people experience greater sadness following a loss than the pleasure they feel from an equivalent gain. Finding $20 might bring joy rated at 6 out of 10, while losing $20 might register disappointment at 10 out of 10. You can leverage this psychological principle by shifting your focus from what might go wrong if you act to what opportunities you'll definitely lose if you don't. During a weeklong kayak race around Michigan, Nick capsized in a storm, breaking his rudder and mast. Initially, he focused on all the reasons to quit—damaged equipment, lost gear, disappointed sponsors. But the next morning, he asked himself what he would regret if he dropped out without trying to continue. This simple shift transformed his avoidance into approach motivation. He repaired his equipment and resumed the race—ultimately winning when all other contestants had dropped out during the storm. To overcome your own fears, practice dealing with change and the emotion of fear daily. Do one thing each day that departs from your normal behavior. If you fear public speaking, make a comment at a meeting. If you're overly competitive, let someone else go first. If you're always in control, volunteer for something where you have limited skills. The goal is to discover that most emotions aren't as bad as they initially seem, and that successfully recovering from emotional discomfort builds confidence for future challenges. Remember, you can only fear events that haven't happened yet. The more knowledge you gather about a situation, the less uncertainty you'll face, and consequently, the less fear you'll experience. This is how you transform fear from an obstacle into a stepping stone toward achievement.

Chapter 4: Break Habit Loops with Strategic Rewards

Habits play a crucial role in either facilitating or hindering our progress toward goals. The pattern of procrastination often becomes so ingrained that it runs on autopilot, much like a well-rehearsed performance. Understanding how habits form and how to break them is essential for overcoming procrastination. A fascinating example of how habit sequences work comes from Nick Hall's experience working at the Black Hills Reptile Gardens in South Dakota. Besides wrestling alligators and milking rattlesnakes, he also ran the "Bewitched Village"—a gallery of trained animals whose enclosures resembled an old Western town. When a cow received a signal, it would tug a rope attached to a bell. This bell then triggered a half-dozen chickens to run from their enclosure to a schoolhouse, which in turn signaled a duck to appear as the "teacher." Each animal's act cued the next in a complex sequence of behaviors. This animal show perfectly illustrates how habit loops work in our brains. The sequence begins with a trigger or cue (the signal to the cow), which activates a routine (the cow rings the bell, chickens run, etc.), culminating in a reward (food treats for the animals). Once established, the entire sequence runs automatically without conscious thought. One day, disaster struck when the initial cue failed. Nick pressed the buzzer signaling the cow to ring the bell, but the cow never appeared. Without the bell, the chickens had no cue to trigger their response, which meant the subsequent routines couldn't begin either. The entire show depended on that initial trigger. Later, Nick discovered raccoons had killed one of the chickens during the night and washed it in the cow's water trough. The traumatized cow refused to perform, breaking the entire habit chain. This experience reveals the key to breaking procrastination habit loops: disrupt the initial cue. Just as the traumatized cow broke the animal show's sequence, you can break your procrastination habit by identifying and eliminating the triggers that set your avoidance behaviors in motion. But success in changing habits requires more than just removing cues—you must also create new habits to override old ones. The reward component is critical in forming new habits. Your brain prioritizes immediate pleasure over future benefits, which is why boring but important tasks get postponed in favor of immediately gratifying activities. To overcome this, you must connect the project you need to complete with something more rewarding than the pleasure of procrastination. Start by identifying a cue that will trigger your new habit—perhaps finishing your morning coffee signals it's time for a brief walk. Through repetition, this cue will acquire properties similar to Pavlov's bell, automatically stimulating your desired response. Next, ensure an immediate reward follows completion of your new routine. While the ultimate reward might be achieving your goal, that's too distant to sustain motivation. Instead, incorporate immediate rewards like the natural endorphin release from exercise or a healthy snack. Remember that habits never disappear completely—they get pushed to the recesses of your brain after being overridden by new ones. During times of emotional upheaval, old habits often resurface because the brain favors the familiar. That's why maintaining consistency in aligning your cue, routine, and reward is essential for strengthening new habits until they become your default response. By understanding how habit loops function, you can strategically design new routines that work with your brain's reward system rather than against it, transforming procrastination into productivity.

Chapter 5: Align Your Beliefs with Your Values

Your beliefs powerfully shape your ability to achieve goals. If your beliefs support your aspirations, you'll likely experience positive, fulfilling emotions. But when beliefs obstruct your goals, negative emotions can derail your progress. The key is ensuring your beliefs align with your deepest values. One profound example of how beliefs impact performance comes from Nick's sixth-grade experience. After failing a math exam in England, his mother consolingly said, "Don't worry about it. No one in our family has ever done well in math." This simple statement instilled a powerful belief: his poor performance wasn't his fault but a genetic limitation. Consequently, he stopped applying himself in math, doing just enough to get by. This belief shaped his academic choices for over a decade until graduate school forced him to take statistics courses. With an excellent instructor, he discovered math wasn't difficult at all—the limiting belief had been completely unfounded. He often wondered how differently his life might have unfolded without that well-intended but limiting "hand-me-down belief." Beliefs come in several forms: core beliefs (fundamental values), cultural beliefs (woven into your upbringing), hand-me-down beliefs (passed from parents or authority figures), advertised beliefs (promoted by media and marketing), and biological beliefs (subconscious conditioned responses). Each type can either support or sabotage your progress, depending on whether they're justified in your current circumstances. Consider the case of a Philippine American woman suffering from lupus. Western medical treatments failed to help her, so she returned to the Philippines where a traditional healer "removed a curse" placed on her by a former suitor. Upon returning to America, her physician found her lupus in full remission. This case, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, wasn't about which healing tradition was superior—it demonstrated how belief-driven emotions can shift the balance between health and illness. The witch doctor didn't cure lupus; he addressed her anxiety, which only he could do within her cultural belief system. To identify beliefs holding you back, examine common excuses people use to avoid taking action: "I'm too busy," "Healthy choices are too expensive," "It's too late to change," or "I can't stick to a routine." These excuses typically fall into six categories: lack of time, money, knowledge, ability, motivation, or optimism—corresponding to mind, body, and spirit challenges. To change unhealthy beliefs, ask yourself these questions: 1. Are these your beliefs or someone else's? 2. Are your beliefs based on experience? 3. Can you think of times when your belief was challenged by reality? 4. Have your beliefs ever kept you from achieving a goal? 5. Are certain themes reflected in your beliefs? 6. Are you willing to change beliefs that obstruct your goals? 7. Are your beliefs serving a useful purpose? Sometimes changing the environment may be better than changing beliefs. If your workplace requires dishonesty counter to your core values, seeking another job might be wiser than compromising your principles. The challenge is determining whether to adapt your beliefs or change your circumstances when misalignment occurs. Remember that your beliefs must ultimately enable you to lead a healthier, more productive, and enriched life. By regularly examining whether your beliefs are aligned with your values and goals, you create internal harmony that propels rather than hinders your progress. This alignment becomes the foundation for sustainable motivation and achievement.

Chapter 6: Create a Blueprint for What You Want

To achieve what matters most, you must first know what you truly want. Many people drift through life without ever asking this essential question, becoming subject to external circumstances rather than creating their desired reality. Identifying your genuine aspirations begins with understanding your values—what you find most meaningful and important. A revealing exercise is to imagine suddenly winning $10 million in a lottery with just five minutes to decide how to spend every penny. What immediately comes to mind? A new house, car, or luxury items? Gifts for family members? Charitable donations? Investment plans? Your instinctive choices reveal your underlying values. If you struggle to develop a spending list, that's also telling—perhaps material wealth isn't what drives you. Another approach is to reflect on someone you deeply admire—a grandparent, mentor, or friend whose decisions you've tried to emulate when facing difficulties. The characteristics you value in this person likely reflect what you most value yourself. Common descriptions include balanced, controlled, confident, compassionate, flexible, energized, calm, and peaceful. These qualities point to a life where beliefs align with actions, where emotional intelligence enables wise choices. Nick shares the experience of riding his bicycle on long-distance fundraising journeys across America. When people ask if he fears being hit by trucks or encountering bad weather, he explains that while mindful of risks, he isn't overly afraid. His confidence comes from thorough preparation—contacting transportation departments to learn bicycle regulations, consulting local bike shops about conditions, reviewing weather patterns, and carrying emergency supplies. His fifty years of cycling experience have familiarized him with most situations he might encounter. This preparation doesn't eliminate adventure but balances it with security. To create your own blueprint for what you want, complete these statements: - In my lifetime, I want to... - Prior to retirement, I want to... - Before my children leave home, I want to... - By [specific time], I want to... Then ask yourself: - Are these goals attainable? - Are they my goals or someone else's? - Are they stated concisely and positively? - Am I willing to begin now? - Am I willing to make necessary changes? - Are my goals consistent with my values? - Do any goals conflict with each other? - What am I willing to sacrifice to achieve them? Be careful of harmful beliefs that can derail your progress, such as "I must be loved by everyone," "I'm responsible for others' happiness," "I must be perfect," or "I can't change because I've always been this way." These limiting perspectives keep you from living authentically and achieving your potential. Remember that your life isn't a dress rehearsal—live each moment as if it were your last while planning as if you'll live forever. Make choices aligned with your deepest values, not external expectations. As the Rotary International four-way test suggests, ask of your decisions: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? By creating a clear blueprint based on your authentic values rather than others' expectations, you establish a foundation for meaningful achievement and lasting fulfillment. This alignment becomes your compass for navigating life's inevitable challenges and opportunities.

Chapter 7: Build a Supportive Environment

Creating an environment that supports your goals rather than undermines them is essential for success. This includes both your physical surroundings and the people with whom you interact. Even the most motivated individual will struggle to achieve goals in a toxic or unsupportive environment. Consider how perception influences your environment. Nick recalls presenting a seminar on guided imagery and the immune system based on his groundbreaking research. Afterward, two audience members approached him with completely opposite interpretations of his presentation. A woman who had survived cancer against medical odds thanked him for confirming imagery had saved her life, while a psychiatrist thanked him for finally debunking guided imagery as "a crock." Both heard the same words but filtered them through their existing beliefs. As the Chinese proverb states, "What the eye sees and what the ear hears is what is already in the mind." This phenomenon extends to how we perceive setbacks. During the Marxist revolution in Grenada in 1979, panic-stricken American medical students offered local fishermen huge sums to transport them off the island in rickety boats. Meanwhile, expatriates who had lived through far worse situations—African revolutions, the London Blitz—calmly continued their routines, confident they would survive this crisis too. Their perspective was entirely different because they had overcome greater adversity before. When facing obstacles, focus on what you have, not what you've lost. If your computer crashes before a deadline and critical work vanishes, dwelling on the lost files only amplifies fear and anger. Instead, take a break, get some sleep, then evaluate your remaining resources. Can colleagues help? Is there an IT department that might retrieve the files? Can you get a deadline extension? By focusing on available options rather than what's gone, you maintain momentum toward your goal. The people around you significantly impact your progress. Research shows that social support promotes health through hormonal changes that reduce stress. People with strong social networks have greater life expectancy and lower incidence of illness. Even pets can provide similar benefits—studies show pet owners have lower blood pressure and better recovery from illness. If you're allergic to animals, caring for plants works too. Yale University researchers found patients who cared for plants in their rooms had speedier recoveries than those who didn't. When dealing with difficult people who impede your progress, develop specific strategies: - For belligerent people who manage through intimidation, stay calm and ask for a time-out to discuss concerns rationally. - With backstabbers who criticize behind your back, gather others being similarly undermined and collectively address the behavior. - For crisis seekers who thrive on drama, frame your needs as urgent to redirect their energy toward your goals. - With invalidators who constantly criticize, ask them to specify exactly what needs improvement rather than allowing them to dismiss entire projects. - For ostracizers who withhold information, build relationships with cooperative colleagues who can share what you need. Another powerful technique is emotion disclosure—translating feelings into words. Research shows that people who talk or write about traumatic experiences initially experience increased anxiety but ultimately show more robust immune systems and fewer health problems. This works because expressing emotions through language forces you to slow down and perceive problems through different sensory pathways, revealing solutions that weren't visible before. Remember that building a supportive environment isn't about eliminating all challenges—it's about creating conditions where your efforts can bear fruit. By managing your perceptions, focusing on available resources, cultivating supportive relationships, and dealing effectively with difficult people, you create an environment that propels rather than hinders your progress toward meaningful goals.

Summary

Throughout this journey, we've discovered that the gap between knowing and doing isn't about willpower or time management—it's about emotion management. When you understand that procrastination stems from avoiding negative emotions rather than avoiding tasks themselves, you gain the power to transform your approach. As Nick Hall wisely observed, "Nothing will disrupt progress toward a goal more than an unexpected setback. The more adversity you've experienced, the greater the likelihood you'll be able to brush yourself off and press on." The path forward is clear: recognize what emotions are holding you back, align your beliefs with your values, break old habit loops with strategic rewards, and build an environment that supports rather than undermines your goals. Start today by selecting just one emotion-management technique from this book and apply it to a task you've been avoiding. Whether it's transforming fear of failure into fear of regret, creating immediate rewards for starting difficult tasks, or simply writing about the emotions that trigger your avoidance, taking this first step will begin breaking the cycle of procrastination. Your emotions can become the fuel that drives achievement rather than the barriers that prevent it—you need only learn to harness their power.

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Nick Hall

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