Transcripts

Kenneth Christian, PhD:
The internal dialogue is "If I try, I could fail. If I don't try, at least maybe I don't find out anything, but I don't fail."

Kenneth Christian, author of the book Your Own Worst Enemy: Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement, says as a result of that, people avoid all kinds of things they really wanted to accomplish.

Cumulatively, as time goes on, the reach some kind of internal crisis where they say, "I could have done so much more," and then they're filled with regret and remorse about mistakes they've made or opportunities they've let go of. It's that "I coulda, shoulda, woulda, I could've been a contender" kind of point of view that you can reach towards mid-life. In fact, the mid-life crisis is really an underachiever's crisis. It's a crisis about "What did I do with the time that I had so far?"

If you're avoiding things because you're afraid you might fail, Kenneth says the remedy is simple.

You have to start. Once you start, you have no idea until you do it how much being at the rest position keeps you from moving, and how little energy is required to keep moving once you get started. In fact, if you want to feel better, go home and finish anything that you've left unfinished. It could be just sending back a piece of mail. As soon as you complete it, you'll feel better.

For transcripts, visit our website, somethingyoushouldknow.net. I'm Mike Carruthers and that's "Something You Should Know."