The reasons that have sparked this thought process are not sharable; however, it relates to quite a few things in our lives, and society at large, that I thought it worth sharing. It relates to the often used delaying tactic to action is the amount of knowledge we have. That we need to know more before we get started — leading, of course, to inaction.

There are always times when this is the case, but more often than not it is simply a logical fallacy. A barrier to action that our mind puts in our way. Take, for example, losing weight. There is no knowledge gap here, we all know that to lose weight in very simple terms we need to eat less and move more. Yet more than 30% of the UK population are inactive, and 63.8% of the population are either overweight or clinically obese. Without discussing the nuance of the figures and descriptions here, they clearly illustrate knowledge is not the issue.

Every person that ‘suffers’ with procrastination knows that they should be working on something. They have enough knowledge of the tasks to complete, it may be right in front of their face — but much like those that want to lose weight, they have an action problem. I know how to become a better writer, I have to write more and hone the skills that I have. I don’t need to learn more about writing, I just need to sit in the chair and do it. Yet, for whatever reason, I have an action issue.

I talk to so many people who say something similar to “I really want to be x”. Exchange x for a whole range of things. A better writer, a photographer, a better runner. Whatever ever is, there’s no knowledge gap to doing it, but no action either.