Annyeonghaseyo, this is Hideic.
This time, I picked up something a little different from my usual reading: a Korean book about one of humanity’s oldest enemies.
Procrastination.
The title caught my attention because recently, I had started to notice something slightly embarrassing.
When life is extremely busy, you don’t always realize how much time you waste.
But the moment you finally get a little free time?
Suddenly you are checking sports news you barely care about, reading some random blog you used to follow ten years ago, and somehow learning what a retired celebrity had for lunch.
Then you look at the clock.
Thirty minutes gone.
And you ask yourself:
“What exactly did I just accomplish?”
That was the moment I found Lee Min-kyu’s book about how to stop putting things off.
At first I wondered whether a Korean author might approach the topic differently from the mostly American and Western self-development books I had read.
The answer?
Yes and no.
The cultural background felt different, but the problem was painfully universal.
Humans everywhere are apparently extremely talented at saying:
“I’ll do it later.”
Knowledge Without Action Is Just Very Well-Educated Inaction
One of the book’s core ideas is brutally simple:
Results depend not only on ability, but on execution.
You may have knowledge.
You may have ideas.
You may have talent.
But if your execution is zero, your result is still zero.
Ouch.
You can read 100 books, highlight half of every page, nod deeply, and say:
“Absolutely. Life-changing.”
Then do nothing.
Congratulations.
You have become intellectually muscular and behaviorally undertrained.
The book explains execution as a skill that moves through three stages:
decision → action → maintenance
I chose one idea from each stage that hit me especially hard.
1. If You Really Want It, Say It Out Loud
The first idea is the power of public commitment.
I have always been the kind of person who prefers not to tell people about my goals.
Why?
Because if I announce something and fail, that is embarrassing.
And if people see me working ridiculously hard, part of me imagines them thinking:
“Wow. He is really desperate.”
Yes.
My brain apparently employs an imaginary audience whose full-time job is judging me.
But the book argues that public declaration can increase self-control and make it harder to quietly escape from your own goals.
Once other people know what you are trying to do, “I changed my mind” becomes slightly more uncomfortable.
That discomfort can become fuel.
The book also tells stories of people such as Muhammad Ali, who publicly declared what he intended to achieve and then trained relentlessly to make his words true.
This reminded me—perhaps for slightly ridiculous reasons—of Japanese boxer Daiki Kameda once making an extreme public promise before a title fight.
Now, I am not recommending that level of commitment.
No need to turn every goal into a samurai movie.
But the principle makes sense:
Create a little social pressure before your future self invents an excuse.
So I am going to use this blog against myself.
Here it is.
Next year, I will score over 900 on the TOEIC.
I will publish the result.
There.
Escape route closed.
Hideic has voluntarily trapped himself.
2. Stop Calling It a Challenge. Call It an Experiment.
The second idea may be the most useful thing I took from the entire book.
Treat every action as an experiment.
The book shares a famous story about Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung.
When highly educated executives explained all the reasons why a difficult project could not be done, he was known for responding with a devastatingly simple question:
“Have you tried it?”
That question destroys an astonishing amount of sophisticated nonsense.
Because we humans are incredible at holding meetings inside our own heads.
“Probably impossible.”
“I need more information.”
“Maybe next month.”
“Let me research another 17 YouTube videos first.”
Attendees: me.
Chairperson: me.
Conclusion: postponed.
But something changes when you call the action an experiment.
A challenge feels like a test of your worth.
An experiment is just information gathering.
Try a new English study method.
Experiment.
Change the way you organize your work.
Experiment.
Try a different family routine.
Experiment.
Want to ask someone on a date?
You can spend three weeks googling “12 signs they secretly like you.”
Or you can conduct an experiment and invite them for coffee.
Success?
Useful data.
Failure?
Also useful data.
This mental shift is powerful because failure stops meaning:
“I am bad at this.”
It starts meaning:
“Interesting. That method didn’t work.”
Much lighter.
Much easier to try again.
So one question I want to keep asking myself is:
“What experiment should I run next?”
That may be one of the best anti-procrastination questions I have ever found.
3. Your Self-Image Quietly Sets the Ceiling
The third idea that struck me was about self-image.
People tend to behave in ways that are consistent with how they see themselves.
If your internal story is:
“I’m not really ambitious.”
“I’m bad at English.”
“I’m not management material.”
“I’m just not disciplined.”
Then your behavior will quietly defend that identity.
You will reject opportunities before the world even gets the chance to reject you.
This made me think of Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank.
When his company was still tiny, he famously talked about building a business on an almost absurd scale.
At that moment, the gap between reality and vision must have looked enormous.
But that is exactly the point.
A larger self-image forces a different question.
Instead of:
“Can someone like me really do that?”
you begin asking:
“What would I need to become in order to do that?”
Those are completely different lives.
I also thought of Japanese speaker and entrepreneur Yohei Kamogashira, who repeatedly described himself in terms of the person he intended to become long before reality had fully caught up.
Whether or not you admire every public figure who uses this approach, the psychological point is powerful.
If you keep yourself inside a tiny mental box, nothing outside that box is likely to happen.
And one day, without noticing, you may simply grow older inside it.
That thought honestly scared me more than failure.
So I am rewriting one of my own internal sentences.
I will become an honest, high-character business professional who can contribute anywhere in the world.
Am I fully that person today?
No.
Good.
That means there is somewhere to go.
“Someday” Has an Extremely Poor Track Record
What I liked most about this book is how direct it is.
It does not let you finish a chapter, close the book, and peacefully say:
“That was very insightful.”
It almost grabs you by the collar and asks:
“Great. So what are you going to do?”
Declare something.
Run an experiment.
Raise your self-image.
All three can begin today.
Not when your schedule clears.
Not when you become more confident.
Not after you finish preparing.
Today.
Because one uncomfortable truth about procrastination is this:
“Someday” feels like a date.
It is not.
It has no place on the calendar.
So if there is something you genuinely want to do, perhaps the best question is not:
“When will I finally be ready?”
Maybe it is:
“What is the smallest experiment I can run today?”
If you are tired of having goals that remain permanently parked in the future, this book is worth reading.
And when should you read it?
Well…
Now.
…Great.
I started as Hideic and somehow ended as a motivational TV teacher.
Nin-nin.
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