We use GrooveHQ to manage all our business email. It’s an excellent service from a fantastic company and helps us stay on top of all the messages we receive from customers, suppliers and so on.

It has a feature that allows you to snooze an email which then disappears from your inbox and reappears at some specified future date/time. I use it to defer action on an email until later without risking forgetting to deal with it.

So far, so good!

The problem comes when I repeatedly snooze the same task. Here I’m deferring action, putting off a decision or more likely, avoiding doing the work and personal experience tells me, this is a bad idea.

Over the last six weeks, I have repeatedly been snoozing one email; it’s a reminder to complete the application for RHS Chatsworth Flower Show 2020. We very much want to do this event, and unfortunately, our application has been unsuccessful for the last two years.

So, why, given that I want to do the show am I putting off the application, running the clock down and reducing the time I have, as the deadline is the 16 September? It’s crazy and makes no obvious sense.

I suppose I’m scared of failing a third time. I’m worried about the effort I know is required for the application to be successful. I’m fearful that it needs an artistic creativity that I don’t have. You see the words that stand out in my previous sentence, fear, worry, scared, effort!

I spend a lot of time writing in this blog encouraging you to feel the fear and do it anyway, to follow your dreams, to be brave and go for it. Here I am, experiencing all those same emotions and fighting the urge to do nothing, to snooze the email one more time, running the clock down until I genuinely don’t have enough time to make a proper application. Thus, guaranteeing my failure.

For me, the big thing holding me back is my fear that my work won’t be good enough. I’m a perfectionist, and I must fight the urge to do nothing when I’m scared.

So yesterday, finally after six weeks I got started. I don’t know what got me over the start line; perhaps it was merely frustration with myself.  But I did it.

I began by drawing up a plan for the stand, thinking through how we are going to merchandise, how we are going to decorate, and how we are going to include plants in our display.

I feel a bit better now I have started, I’m still nervous and finding it hard. But now I have a series of small tasks to do rather than one scary big one. This makes it easier to manage and more likely that I can keep moving forward.

Fingers crossed I get it done on time! I will keep you posted.

Together, we climb the mountain, not in giant leaps but one small step at a time.