How to trick your mind to do hard things
So if you are interested in watching the video version to this, please do check it out here:
But for the avid readers, let’s begin..
For many of us, we rarely face any problems or need any extra encouragement to binge watch Netflix or scroll through instagram for hours on end!
But how many of you find it difficult to do the hard things, or shall we say important things that aren’t quite as “enticing” such as starting your essay, working out or doing the mundane things no-one ever speaks about on your side hustle!
Sadly that doesn’t sound as exciting despite us all knowing the “hard” things are actually the things that will reap us the most rewards in the long term and simply liking peoples photos all day long and completing Netflix doesn’t really add much value to our lives once we’ve finished doing it.
So why does this happen then?
Why are we constantly choosing the easier tasks over the more difficult ones, knowing full well we are sabotaging our progress and opportunities by doing so?
Well the good news is, even right now you can probably find or think of someone who actually applies themselves to the harder tasks more often than the easier.
Which makes me ponder, firstly why are some people more motivated to do this, but secondly how can we, if we aren’t already, be more motivated just like that person to do the difficult things.
Now the actual answer requires us to delve into some science…
Dopamine to be exact.
This is usually related to “pleasure” and often misunderstood.
The actual molecule itself is related more to desire.
The desire to motivate oneself to actually do things!
So therefore we can conclude that when a particular task or activity “releases” a dopamine reward we are more inclined to want to do it, to get that motivation to pursue it.
Just like playing video games OR listening to your favourite music.
But when we look at the “hard stuff” we mentioned earlier, such as working out now instead of watching netflix, or writing that essay or studying rather than scrolling through instagram our brain does not anticipate the release of dopamine thus making it difficult for us to get excited about it.
Now vividly imagine a pizza delivery coming in just before the game on tv tonight and instantly your brain will release dopamine to get you motivated for something that wont take you much effort to do whilst telling convincing your brain about how good it will make you feel.
Now the dangerous thing with this is, your brain will happily take dopamine hits, and ignore whether the pizza and sitting down for hours without moving is good for you or not. It’s primary concern is to feel good! So let’s not keep having those thoughts after this video & stick around to maybe tricking your mind into doing more favourable things for yourself!
And the reason I think its important to help you trick your brain into doing more of the hard stuff is because, as much as we like to see ourselves as intelligent, self aware, forever progressing human beings, we are also creatures of habit!
And linked to that we have a biological self-regulating process known as homeostasis which is where our body likes to keep things balanced in our body from a physical, chemical and internal perspective.
Now bearing in mind homeostasis can be altered depending on our actions and behaviours it’s important to note that we must be aware of habits and how they influence desire to do things via dopamine release.
It is difficult to build a tolerance towards computer games as an example because you can chop and change between levels, genres, online and offline and progress through the levels consistently giving you that feel good factor!
But when it comes to difficult tasks like working out, or studying the dopamine hits are much less and therefore less appealing!
So how do we combat this? How do we make those smaller amounts of dopamine (which will benefit us in the long run) outweigh, or at least somewhat motivate us to get started and doing!
Welcome the dopamine detox!
Now this is an experiment I am implementing myself too & I encourage you to try it with me
Now depending on what day you read this, you will need to prepare a few things.
There are some rules to abide by to get yourself that dopamine detox!
And here are the rules:
1. No social media
2. No internet
3. No mobile phone
4. No music
5. No sex
6. No junk
Removing as many external pleasures you are used to experiencing within the week and living what you would consider a very very “boring day”.
Now we need to embrace this boredom on the day and the way to keep time moving and get through it, I recommend the following:
a) Meditation
b) Journalling
c) Walking in nature
d) Exercise
The reason we want to do this is we want to make the boring stuff, seem like fun!
And believe me, the above examples are way more fun than sitting around feeling bad you can’t gain external pleasures during the detox.
Now the advantage of doing this will also be, that the “homeostasis levels” we have created and gotten used to from our normal dopamine related activities will actually become more desirable due to them not being as frequently available.
As fun as pizza is, even consuming that daily would become less pleasurable.
So by having that detox, and performing more “harder” tasks that provide less dopamine we can start to appreciate both the hard and easy tasks more.
Now for myself, I always aim to exercise daily knowing I generally eat breakfast later and have my favourite larger meals in the evening.
I am therefore motivating myself to do the hard work, such as exercise, important work on the business, the mundane tasks that are necessary to move me forward knowing that in the evening I will be able to reward myself with high dopamine activites of either my favourite foods, some of my favourite tv shows or just watching YouTube content I enjoy & liking videos ….hint!
Now the science behind this is, if I was to choose a breakfast full of my favourite foods, as soon as I woke up giving myself a larger dopamine hit, the desire to work out would be a lot less. I would know it would release less dopamine than what I have just done and in return my motivation would be less.
This is why I do the other way around to keep myself consistent with my habits ensuring I am doing things to better future proof myself and success whilst also enjoying the fruits of my labour along the way!
Now if 24 hours is very difficult to do, maybe look at your day and write down the high dopamine activities you are currently doing daily and REPLACE one of them for a week with a lower dopamine activity.
For example, replacing 1 hour of instagram scrolling with 1 hour of exercise a day.
You will not only release endorphins prior to exercising, but you will be benefitting your mind and body for today and tomorrow.
And also by only replacing one activity, rather than doing a full detox you can still obtain dopamine hits from other activities to keep yourself motivated!
But just remember, to do the hard stuff first and work your way — or else you may struggle to seek that small hit of dopamine exercise offers!
To conclude this blog, I sincerely hope it adds some clarity and gives you a possible way to start doing the hard things you need to do in life rather than being hooked on the easy stuff which serves only momentary value.
It is how I manage to stay active most days and trick myself into doing things others may see as hard, boring or mundane.
I hope you all have an amazing day and seek that desire to do the hard things first to put yourselves in the best position for tomorrow.
Thank you for reading.
