Feb 10, 2022
The reward of instant gratification is the poison
We deviate every now and then because it's often tempting to slide back into our old routine. The journey of personal growth is hard. To succeed you must defeat your biggest enemy, i.e. you.
How many times have you observed yourself go astray in the pursuit of any goal or habit?
It’s pretty common.
The ghost of our old self is always lurking behind a corner, ready to pounce if we let our guard down even for a second.
What gives this apparition its biggest chance is the reward of instant gratification.
What happens is when things get hard, which they eventually will, we tend to reach out to our comfort zones.
“It’d just be a minute”, we think.
That’s precisely the opening our old lazy self is looking for.
Minutes become hours, hours become days and soon we’re right back where we started.
The reward that we get after indulging in temptation becomes poison for us. When we give in too much we destroy our self-esteem. As our self-esteem keeps chipping away, we tend to lose confidence too. Eventually, this becomes a feedback loop and we give up on ourselves.
All this just because we said, “It’d just be a minute”.
The road of self-improvement is paved with numerous tests
When we go on our personal transformation journey there are bound to be problems. The road of self-improvement is paved with numerous tests.
These tests are nature’s way to filter out the weak.
Those who pass, enjoy the sweet fruit of their labor at the end.
Why do most give up?
Because it is easy.
It is easy to eat that cake.
It is easy to not go to the gym.
It is easy to not follow a routine to build your habit. You tend to get bored.
It is easy to binge-watch a movie or a series. Time flies. We sit there passively. On the contrary, try to read a book and you will count each second on the clock at the beginning.
It’s easy not to write daily either. You might feel out of ideas. You might feel you are not in the mood. You might be mentally disturbed due to some personal or family issue.
Try to write anyhow. The act of doing something because you know it needs to be done builds self-respect.
Stop believing the lies your brain feeds you
Your brain peddles lies to you. Its objective is to keep you safe.
If you are trying to achieve something worthwhile you’d be better served by giving zero “you know what” to its deception.
Consider your goal to lose weight. When we deny ourselves that delicious chocolate pastry, our brain resists. It thinks we need that energy for survival. But we know that’s not true. We don’t live in the jungles of Africa anymore. The world has evolved faster than our brains. It does not know that we don’t need sugar in large quantities these days as we got self-sufficient in food production.
Thus we need to endure this resistance our brain presents before us and continue on our path to weight loss.
If you even for a second try to argue with your mind you will lose the battle. Our mind is so clever it will generate some excuse and it will be perfectly valid.
In the beginning, you need to revolt against your brain.
Make the difficult choice and reap the rewards later. Avoid instant gratification and become worthy of success.
I write on my blog daily. This is day 23 of my daily writing challenge for 2022. I write on whatever interests me. There is no word limit. I am doing this simply to become a better writer. Tag along and follow my journey as I write every single day for an entire year.
