What if hustling and procrastinating are actually coping mechanisms?

Your felt resistance isn’t random. It’s revealing what needs to change.

Original photo by sum+it via pexels. Modified by Author.

There was a time when I labeled every hesitation, every delay, and every “I’ll do it later” as a personality flaw. That it was something I was doing wrong or purely just suck at. I told myself I had a consistency problem. I even doubted whether I was really cut out for this.

But what if we chose to believe differently?

What if our avoidance, procrastination, and resistance aren’t signs that we’re broken—but indicators that our inner Work OS is merely outdated or bloated with things you no longer or never really needed?

Truth is, many of us are still running on old survival strategies—ones we learned in childhood and picked up in high-pressure environments. They helped us succeed back then… but they were never meant to sustain us long term. And now? They're quietly fueling the exact hustle cycles we’re so desperate to break.

If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in cycles of overworking, burning out, doubting, or numbing out, this is for you.

The hidden function of your “flaws”

Avoidance often feels like laziness or failure. But more often, it’s fear in disguise.

Fear of not getting it right. Fear of letting others down. Fear of wasting precious time and resources.

You avoid what feels uncertain. You procrastinate when you don’t trust your capabilities. And when the pressure builds, your system defaults to the one strategy that’s always “worked” before: overworking.

You overdo to feel in control. You say “yes” when you’re already maxed out. You convince yourself that you just need “one more push” before you can finally rest.

But here’s the truth most entrepreneurs don’t see:

Overworking is often a trauma-informed response to a world that praised you for self abandonment.

It looks like grit. It looks like productivity. But it’s a silent signal that you haven’t yet learned to feel safe having complete trust in yourself and while being still.

Breaking the glass ceiling I didn't know I created

One of the most transformational shifts I’ve experienced during this slowdown came when I finally faced the fears I didn’t even know I was carrying.

I always thought I was just being “realistic” or “practical” about my business goals. If I followed what others are doing, then I’ll succeed, too, right?!

But beneath that logic was a quiet set of internal rules I had never questioned. What I thought was strategic planning was actually me operating inside a self-imposed glass ceiling—one built from fear, doubt, and outdated beliefs I didn’t even realize were running the show.

That changed the moment I sat with one unexpectedly powerful journal prompt, framed from a different perspective I hadn’t considered before.

What poured out was a handwritten list of 55 fears! It filled pages. Some I already knew. Most I had never consciously named.

Fears about visibility. Fears about failure. Fears about what success might cost me. Fears about being not enough. Fears about whether I could truly find a slower and more sustainable way that works for me.

Once I could see them, I could start to address and release them. These fears felt like invisible shackles that kept me busily churning behind the scenes and made me believe in my excuses more than my dreams.

Naming my fears gave me back my power. That list became a mirror, showing me exactly where I was holding myself back.

And I’m not done… I’m still working through that same prompt—every day this week. Each instance helps me shine light on all that dark and scary stuff I’ve been avoiding. It is showing me the deeper fears that have quietly shaped how I show up in my business without me even realizing it.

Here are a few things I’ve noticed and heard from others as well:

• You default to what's familiar, not what's aligned.

  Many of us unknowingly recreate old work patterns even after leaving corporate. The same pressure. The same guilt around rest. The same urgency to prove ourselves. Even when you're trying to build something different, your nervous system will often steer you back to what feels familiar—overworking, overthinking, or overserving—because those are the patterns that once kept you safe.

• You underestimate how much decision fatigue is draining your clarity.
  Constant context switching, open tabs (literal and mental), and too many options subtly erode your ability to follow through. You cannot do your way out of exhaustion. Rest isn’t a reward. It’s a requirement. If you don’t give yourself time and space to recover, it will be forced upon you at some point.

• You default to work as a way to avoid emotional discomfort.
  It feels productive, but often it’s just a more socially acceptable way to stay distracted from the hard inner questions. But often, those discomfort are just signals that something needs your attention—your energy is misaligned, your expectations are off, or your next move doesn't feel safe enough yet. They’re meant to show us something but we’ve been trained to ignore their wise whispers and just push through.

The more you bring these patterns into awareness, the less grip they have on you.

The blindspots that keep you in burnout

You might not see these at first glance, but they continuously shape how you work:

• Avoidance is easier than admitting what you really want. Because naming it means you might have to confront your limits—or the beliefs, commitments, and expectations that no longer fit.

• Procrastination isn’t always about time. Sometimes it’s about your identity and what you choose to believe about yourself. Sometimes it’s a deeply rooted fear you’re scared to face. Sometimes it’s your mind calling for some form of mental rest.

• You confuse pressure with purpose.
  That internal urgency feels like motivation, but it’s often just unprocessed fear dressed up as drive. And whenever that pressure loosens, you find a way to crank it back up to recreate that seemingly needed fuel to keep you going.

• You’ve normalized inner tension as part of the job.
  Subtle resistance, low level dread, or anxiety around your work becomes so familiar you stop questioning if it has to be there. Just because you’re used to it, it doesn’t mean it’s right or necessary.

In order to create the kind of work life I truly crave, I have to stop letting these outdated patterns run the show. I can’t keep repeating them and expect a different result.

This part of the journey isn’t always easy. But I’m choosing to believe in what’s possible.

And for me, that begins with one honest, undeniable truth:
Admitting to myself that I’ve been ineffectively using my time and energy.

Tracking the truth behind my efforts

In my recent Sandbox Experiments, I’ve been testing one intentional shift: paying closer attention to how I’m using my time.

Not because I want to optimize every minute to be more efficient, but because I want to be more honest with myself and understand what my current patterns are actually revealing. No more mindless autopilot. No more wondering where all my time went.

It’s about identifying where I am unconsciously recreating unnecessary pressure, burnout, or overwhelm… and finally having the data to choose differently.

This not only improves my business outcomes, but also how I feel when I’m doing the work, too.

Your ideal Work Structure is based off of two essential elements—how much time you give yourself to work, and how much focused energy you have to give when you show up.

So I created two customized tracker templates to (1) map my natural energy and focus cycles throughout the day and (2) how I’m choosing to spend my time across what I claim to matter most.

At first glance, it sounds simple. But the clarity it’s brought me has been nothing short of game changing.

Not because it helps me be more effective, but because it helps me finally understand:

• Why I keep defaulting to certain habits

• Where my energy gets drained without me realizing it

• How to work with my natural tendencies, instead of constantly fighting them

I’m currently testing and refining these templates. Once they’re ready, I’ll be offering them to those of you who want to explore your time and energy with more honesty, clarity, and intention, too.

👉🏼 Want first dibs or be a beta tester? Click here to let me know

Because when you can see what’s actually going on, you stop managing your time based on guilt, pressure, or inherited expectations. You start building a business that finally supports you.

Until then, I’ll leave you with this:

• What is your time and energy really going towards?

• Is how you’re spending your time and energy actually working for you?

• What do you wish you had more time for?

You don’t need to overhaul everything overnight. You don’t need to shame yourself into structure. And you definitely don’t need to work harder to fix what’s never been broken.

You just need to start paying attention.

That’s how you begin to shift—gently, intentionally, and in ways that finally support the kind of life you actually want to live.

Keep asking better questions. Keep noticing your truths. And let’s keep experimenting… together.

P.S. If this helped you better understand why you’ve been feeling stuck, tap the ❤️ to let me know. Share or restack this post to help someone else shift their story—and finally stop feeling broken for needing a different way to work.