What is completion anxiety?

While many people think of getting the job done as an admirable trait, there are some who may be suffering from completion anxiety, which can actually be quite debilitating. They might believe that if they don’t get their work finished immediately, it won’t ever get done and it will haunt them forever. As you can imagine, this can make starting and finishing tasks difficult, but there are ways to help manage this disorder if you or someone you know has been diagnosed with it.

 

What is Completion Anxiety?

 

Completion anxiety manifests as the pressure you put on yourself to have all of your tasks completed and done. You are happy with each finished task, but what keeps coming back to you is that there’s always something left undone or unfinished. This can cause frustration and often a feeling of hopelessness. Completion Anxiety may not seem like a big deal on the surface, but it can grow to be paralyzing if not dealt with in time.

Comleasing yourself means reducing your expectations by having a realistic timeline for getting things done, accepting that some tasks will take longer than others and also only putting pressure on yourself for the more important tasks when necessary.

 

How it Differs From Other Forms of Anxiety

 

Competition and striving for excellence are natural and beneficial parts of human nature. We strive to be the best we can be, which sets us apart from animals in the animal kingdom. However, not all of our competitive impulses are good or helpful to society or ourselves. Such is the case with competition-induced performance anxiety that comes about when people’s sense of achievement, worthiness, and/or competence are dependent on a tangible benchmark, such as academic grades or sales targets.

 

Performance anxiety may cause people to dread accomplishing tasks out of fear that they will not live up to their personal expectations or the expectations of others. In addition, these individuals often worry excessively about how others will perceive them if they do not succeed. Some examples of this include an athlete who fears disappointing teammates if he doesn’t perform well or a student who fears disappointing teachers by earning lower grades than she believes she deserves.

 

Common Symptoms – Completion anxiety

 

The symptoms of completion anxiety can vary widely between individuals, with some people experiencing more severe symptoms than others.

Completion anxiety often manifests in four major categories:

•  mental
• emotional
•  behavioral and
•  physical

 

Typical examples include obsessive thoughts about completing a task, emotional discomfort during or after performing a task and irrational thoughts about failing to complete a task. In other words, any behavior that might be seen as detrimental to getting a job done can be symptomatic of the condition.

 

For example, this could mean not wanting to start work because it’s easier to avoid than having an unpleasant confrontation, being unable to relax when doing tasks outside one’s comfort zone, or being unable to get started on something for fear of not finishing it.

 

If these behaviors happen every day for at least two weeks, they may indicate an underlying problem. For example, chronic feelings of failure are linked with depression; if someone has feelings of guilt over past failures they may have difficulty getting started on anything new; while perfectionism can cause someone never feel like they’re good enough even if they make progress.

 

Common Causes

 

The most common causes of completion anxiety are fear of failure and fear of success. Fear of failure has a variety of sources, which often stem from the need to avoid disappointment in oneself or others. It can also stem from perfectionism and the belief that one must do well in everything they do. Fear of success can cause those who already feel insecure about themselves to worry that their personal shortcomings will be more noticeable if they achieve too much.

 

It can also cause people who have spent their lives focusing on things other than work, such as building relationships, raising children, and developing hobbies, to worry that achieving too much will signal an abandonment of other areas in life.

Anxiety over not having a balance between family and work can also result in fear of success because these individuals may believe that balancing these two aspects would mean sacrificing either relationship with friends or time with family.

 

Heavy reliance on external validation for self-worth can also contribute to completion anxiety by making it difficult for someone to accept compliments. They might view compliments as an indication that they aren’t really good enough, so this becomes another source of pressure.

 

The worst-case scenario is when someone’s self-worth is dependent on what he or she does and how he or she performs at any given moment in time. These people struggle the most with getting tasks done, feeling like nothing ever gets done, and procrastinating when there’s something difficult ahead.

 

How to overcome it

 

Here are seven simple tips that may help you get over the feeling of being overwhelmed:

 

Divide up your work into smaller, manageable steps and celebrate your victories. – Write a to-do list each day and prioritise tasks that need to be done today ahead of those for tomorrow. – If possible, break down a task into even smaller chunks (think 10 minutes). This will not only make it easier to deal with but also provide regular milestones that you can mentally tick off as they’re completed.

 

Start something new; don’t think about finishing what you’ve already started. The best way to tackle any task is one small step at a time. There’s no point in setting yourself unrealistic goals. Remember that it’s okay to take breaks when you need them!

 

Final Thoughts – Completion anxiety

 

Completion anxiety  – A lot of times, what we think of as completion may not necessarily be the ultimate goal. The thing we’ve been working on isn’t done yet, but in a way, it has to end at some point so we can make space for other things. It’s okay to let go and set your sights on something new. It won’t always be the same – and it might not feel like there’s an obvious end in sight – but that doesn’t mean you should just give up. Let go when you need to, but find comfort in knowing you’ll have the strength to try again if and when life presents a new opportunity for fulfillment.