The topics of shyness and social anxiety along with procrastination participate in the more general theme of reluctance that surface in some important literary work. T. S. Elliot, for one, was strong in his condemnation of those whose lives are one long litany of missed opportunities.

According to a recent biography of Elliot by Craig Raine, Elliot addressed this issue in his poem “Hollow Men" which depicts those “gutless, empty souls who," as Raines says, have been rejected by both “heaven and hell because they neither have sinned nor been actively virtuous."

Imagine a life lived in this way. Sounds pretty dreary and yet how many who have sought to rectify and improve their quiet nature have been defeated by insufficient success or recognition. I suspect that many are stuck not from insufficient motivation to change, but rather from insufficient self discipline.

As a lifetime student of reluctance in its various forms, I have come to cast myself as a “self discipline coach". I have had a lot of experience mobilizing myself to change and helping others as well who were seeking to implement self change agendas. If you are interested, contact me via email at msanford@coldcalling.com for a free consultation related to coaching on this topic.

Raine also mentions the “Love Song of J. Alfred Profrock" which depicts a sensitive but timid man who has failed to seize the day, who, as Raines puts it, has resolved to “remain repressed to avoid the element of risk that is part of truly living." “Animula" similarly depicts, says Raine, a “psychically damaged confined soul corroded by its own caution, while “Gerontin" is narrated by a “voluptuary of inaction" with an extensive “collection of alibis for the circumstances of his life."