You can't create with a gun to your head.
We all have a distinct relationship with pressure and, frankly, the majority doesn't thrive on it.
"What if you had a gun to your head to do it? What if this was do-or-die?"
I'd die.
When you have something you desperately mean to achieve, as a tool, this question has its place.
It may help you think of all the ways that are less than optimal, but will still get you the damn result.
It may help you come up with all the things you can temporarily kick out from your life and live, but get the damn result.
It may even help you realize that getting your damn result is actually possible—by obliterating your mental blocks and giving you permission to think crazy.
It may also fold you like a deck of cards. Paralize you. Make you prematurely quit. (It depends on whether your nervous system defaults to "fight", "flight", or "freeze".)
We all have a distinct relationship with pressure and, frankly, the majority doesn't thrive on it. For most of us, our individual pressure tolerance is already exceeded.
If you are someone who tends to procrastinate (flight) or space out (freeze) when much is at stake, the "do-or-die" is not for you, because you will "die". And that doesn't help, does it?
"I can choose not to do it if I want to", counterintuitively, will release you. It will give you back the option of willful choice, the option you robbed yourself of when you branded it as "failure". Helplessness breeds among the lack of options.
Improbable growth comes from wielding your strengths, but also your weaknesses.
When assembling your own toolbox of mental techniques, think if these tools fit:
a) your hand
b) your environment
c) your purpose
This will massively shrink your toolbox.
This will also help you achieve your damn result.
"I can choose not to do it if I want to", that's exactly the technique I used (although I did not really realize it at the time) to trick myself into getting something important done recently. It had me "frozen" for some time, because I thought must what at stakes (hence the high pressure), but the moment I tricked my mind into thinking that I was "choosing" to do it (instead of "having to"), I found myself released from the overwhelming pressure and managed to be much more productive.
“Improbable growth comes from wielding your strengths, but also your weaknesses.”
Really important point! We all have our strong points and tend to lean on those while falling flat in the other areas. One way I wield my weaknesses is to find someone who’s good at that stuff and team up. Collaboration has really helped me, I’ve co-written 3 books now.