Procedural Executive Function, Part 3

Second link is broken.

One point I want to add to my previous comment: 

I think it's possible that 'fear of failure + fear of difficulty' doesn't fully explain why people struggle to start/continue an action. 

In fact, I think there's a third reason, one that's fuzzier and therefore perhaps somewhat more delicate to deal with which at least I encounter: I'm often vaguely aware (intuitively/not quite consciously) that a/some second-order consequence(s) will be impacted if I undertake the action, or if I undertake the action before obtaining more information, mustering up sharper focus etc (yes, I realise this is exactly how one might rationalise procrastinating, only about something that isn't the core object). This is esp true if there's a general sense of uncertainty about various ramifications of my executing/prioritising/executing in a particular way the action in question. 

As context, this is something that's become true for me in the course of heavy burnout. Quite simply, I lost confidence in my ability to effectively track ALL the things (hypervigilant? Me? What do you mean, overoptimising isn't optimal?), which caused a bunch of paralysis. I'm working on it; simply becoming aware of these kinds of patterns has helped me tremendously. I think it's worth recognising the impact such mechanisms can have, at least for people who struggle to trust their focus/discernment, either temporarily like me or possibly chronically, if that's a thing for really anxious people. 

I think there's a way this failure mode can be rolled into your 'failure or difficulty' model, by conceptualising this as a subset of the potential failure or difficulty that may arise if you undertake the action.

I appreciate you writing this sequence. Here's why:

- I thought the flow of it was pretty smooth (which is helpful when you struggle with EF, obviously) - I esp enjoyed the fact that you maintained a clear enough map of where you were going at a couple of different levels at basically all times. 
- I got a lot out of your content, mostly in terms of 'cool, I now have an easily accessible and pretty intuitive rough structure in mind of what might be going on when I get stuck and which ways the causal arrows point', which I hadn't taken the time/didn't have the bandwidth to figure out/research myself.
- you made connections with frameworks from adjacent fields and examples that spoke to me effortlessly (relevant level of abstraction, etc) and enriched my toolbox.

Thanks esp for the times you shared your personal experiences, offered a bit of your own speculation (I think?) - and pushed through when you struggled to show up to write.