Page 127 - End Procrastination Now Get it Done with a Proven Psychological Approach

Act Decisively 95

you may avoid making a decision even when managing the uncer-
tainty is a pressing priority.
Uncertainty may stimulate doubts, challenge, or something in
between. However, is a high-priority situation with unknowns au-
tomatically a cause for stress and procrastination? It depends on
how you define the situation and your tolerance for uncertainty.
If you are among the millions who are intolerant of uncer-
tainty, you may find this intolerance rooted in a highly evaluative
process. For example, oversensitivity to discomfort plus either ex-
aggerating and dramatizing the dreadfulness of the situation or
seeing it as being as bad as, if not worse than, it can possibly be
amplifies the tension. Under these amplified stress conditions, it
is understandable that a procrastination path of least resistance
can seem appealing.
Let’s look at four conditions associated with intolerance for
uncertainty and procrastination: illusions, heuristics, worry, and
equivocation.

Illusion-Based Decisions

Your intuition, insightfulness, and emotional sensitivity were pres-
ent before your reason developed. The evolution of reason and
foresight opened opportunities to go beyond survival to higher-
level choices and decisions. However, a tool that is an asset can
also be a liability.
A psychological illusion is a blend of intuition and false think-
ing. It is something that you believe is real and true, but that in
fact isn’t the way you perceive or read it. Psychological illusions
can and do arise as answers for reducing uncertainty.
Do you believe that you make illusion-based decisions that
can give you a false sense of clarity, but also a high decision error
rate? Few people believe that illusions have a controlling influence
over their lives. But illusions often interfere with identifying
rational choices and deciding on what to do to best meet the
challenge.