I often avoid projects and conversations I care the most about. This seems counter-intuitive and like a clever move of self-sabotage. It is. But when the stakes get higher, my desire to “do things right and thoughtfully” increases, and then I’m never pleased with the time I have in my day to “do things right and thoughtfully.” And the hours and days tick by.

(In fact I am making this post when I need to be editing a big project.)

Everyone has an invisible map of dread — a cluster of tasks, conversations, or ambitions that provoke a low hum of avoidance. We tell ourselves we’re too busy, or that conditions aren’t right, but what we’re really avoiding is discomfort, failure, awkwardness, hard work, or loss of control.

A dread audit is a way to name those fears, look at them with curiosity, and convert them into creative momentum. It’s part inventory, part reckoning — a gentle way to reestablish agency when inertia has crept in.