You hate change, but tell your brain to shut up about it
Every time something changes, I can’t help but think about ways to improve upon that change. But, I’ve learned to just tell my brain to shut up about it.
In a world where you can have just about anything exactly as you want it, when you want it, there’s no end to the amount of considering, fidgeting, and tinkering you can do. When you have this level of control, you can’t help but notice that your shoes aren’t the perfect shade of gray, or your iPhone isn’t the new one.
What you don’t notice is that you could be doing better things with your mental energy. You already know there’s a battle going on for your attention, but you may not have noticed that this battle extends beyond your smartphone, and deep into the realm of consumption at large.
noah kagan told me, on a recent podcast interview, about his new condo. He had bought it sight unseen, since it had yet to be built. When he finally walked into his new home, he was disappointed. It was half the size of his old place. It was like “a tiny jail cell.”
He started to regret his decision.
But a wise friend told him to shut up about it and wait two weeks. Noah then discovered lots of things he liked about his new place: there’s a grill, a gym, and it’s really close Trader Joe’s.
He grew to love his new place, and wouldn’t want to move back to his old one.
I call it Change Resistance: anytime something changes you’re going to find things that aren’t ideal — especially if you have a choice in the matter. Just tell your brain to shut up about it for a couple of weeks, and not only will you forget — you’ll probably grow to like it just fine. You’ll save yourself a lot of hassles, and you can do something else with that leftover energy.
Be on the lookout for Change Resistance in your life. You’ll find it in where you live, the stuff you buy, and the people you choose to spend time with. The more you’re attuned to it, the more clearly you’ll see that we’ve been trained — by endless choices and customization — to never accept things as they are. Our trackpad has a crack in it, and even though it works just fine, we have to buy a new one; our hairdresser didn’t cut our hair right, and now we feel awful for a few months while we wait for it to grow back; or, that first date we just had is great — but she likes Nickelback — maybe if we swipe a few thousand more times, we’ll find what we’re looking for.
Change Resistance is a drain on your productivity and sense of fulfillment every bit as dangerous as the Facebook News Feed or the latest Netflix dramatic series. Notice when it arises, fight it when it hits you, and add a healthy dose of decisiveness to beat it to the punch.
Listen to the full interview with Noah Kagan to hear other ways to keep your brain from stealing your productivity.
