You know you should do something, but you’re having a hard time doing it. Maybe it’s procrastination over work. Maybe it’s fear of taking the next step. Whether it’s an insurmountable barrier or just temporary friction, inaction means being stuck in place. Fundamentally, inaction is a mental process and can be solved. Let’s cut through some illusions.
First, recognize that inaction does not mean a lack of activity. You are always doing something, even if that’s just thinking in a never-ending cycle. When you give up on the thing you should do, you always end up doing something else. Inaction is the replacement of what you should do with your usual habit.
Second, if your will fails, that doesn’t mean you simply lack desire. What you’re really experiencing is conflict. There is an internal resistance, and the sense of effort is the challenge of overcoming conflict. When you’re unconflicted, even a tiny intention results in action without feeling much effort.
Third, you’re never too tired to act. If you were that tired you’d already be unconscious. When you feel tired, you tend to experience excess mental activity which makes it feel more difficult to act. This is just more internal conflict!
Fourth, you’re never really out of ideas. When you think, “I don’t know what to do,” that’s actually conflict over some intention you already have. Some option instantly presents itself and you resist, waiting for some other idea that will magically cut through the knot of conflict–sometimes that’s fine, sometimes it’s time to act with what you’ve got.
When you actually start doing the activity, something interesting happens. The more you get absorbed and stop questioning yourself, the more the sense of resistance or tiredness disappears. The actual challenge is internal: unifying the mind around the task. When it stops fighting itself, the issues of energy and willpower take care of themselves. You do, without effort.
Resistance, leading to conflict, is a problem to be solved. Start by noticing and labeling its causes. There are four causes of resistance: 1. A conflicting desire. 2. Grasping. 3. Fear. 4. Thinking.
A conflicting desire can prevent your mind from settling on the current activity. It can be a worry, a leftover from your previous activity, something compulsive, or something important. It plays an interference role.
Grasping rejects the current activity and looks for something more compulsive/habitual, without a particular object in mind. It’s like a caterpillar waving around, looking for the next leaf. It feels like longing, emptiness, laziness or craving. You might get flashes of possible ways of filling the void. If you’re habitually doing really compulsive things, like drugs or scrolling through social media, then settling the mind on non-compulsive stuff like work is going to be much harder.
Fear can arise when you consider the action. If it’s just a feeling then it’s a matter of recognizing and getting comfortable with it in the body. It’s merely an unpleasant feeling; apply some compassion and move forward. Unfortunately, it often provokes thinking, which can get you trapped.
Thinking about what you’re going to do can be a minefield. When there are too many choices, or it is difficult to tell between them, or choices lead to more choices, that often produces paralysis or fear. This is why it’s easier to respond with an emoji than with a sentence, for example. Thinking has a trapping quality; try to recognize when thinking is leading toward or away from action.
The most important failure of thinking is waiting to see the whole path to the destination. In life, especially for big decisions, this is rarely possible. You'll never have all the information you need. You only need to think of two things: a good direction to go, and a first step. That's enough to act, and with each step you learn more and more options open up. Don't trust in a plan, trust in the direction you're going.
Here’s something worth knowing: all activity happens on its own–you’re not really doing it. You’re only managing your internal conflicts. Every activity has its own mind-state. You’re allowing that mind-state to form around the activity like a crystal forming around a seed, and when it’s undisturbed, the actions just flow.
If you succeed in starting, resistance can re-arise in the midst of activity when the mind-state breaks. This typically happens because of an unpleasant feeling, a surprise, or a moment of choosing.
Here’s a grab bag of tricks for reducing resistance in the moment:
- To make it easier to start, get the mind in a state conducive to the activity.
- Be kind to your mind: a mind that’s scattered and passive is naturally going to struggle to enter an active state.
- The body is always involved: try adjusting your breathing, relaxing, or getting the blood flowing.
- When starting, don’t focus on the results or the details, trust in your good intentions.
- Sometimes you need a little structure: sketch out your plan in a quick outline.
- Don’t mistake planning for action. Don't mistake optimizing for action. Don't mistake mentally perfecting for action.
- Don't build things up: you're doing this once, right now. The entire past & future don't need to get involved.
- Do build things up: remember that this moment matters, the smallest habits accumulate, and it's complacency that kills.
- Activate a good mood. Find something happy about this. See it and yourself in a bright way.
- Get into the flow as soon as possible–find the most immediate action and do it.
- Be continuously active and build momentum.
- While doing, focus on the activity, not yourself.
The most general solution to inaction, however, is a strong social context: find & be around trustworthy people who are doing the thing you fail to do, and be honest with them about your desires and failures. There is nothing more powerful than this. This is the foolproof way!
Exercise 1: Make a written note of your actions for a few days. Compare what you think about doing, intend to do, plan/analyze doing, to what you actually end up doing. Identify what leads to action.
Exercise 2: Pick something that matters to you, which you are currently failing to do. Identify a person (the closer the better) who does that thing. Tell them about your goal, your failure, and ask for advice/help.
Your mind should be a vehicle that takes you to good places, not a cage. You ought to be able to do anything you think is a good idea. That is what freedom really means.
