Pain, good or bad?
You know, in many ways most of us, humans, are still simple animals. At least in the way we behave most of the time. Following the rules of operant conditioning we repeat behaviors that bring us small short-term satisfactions, but leaving us completely blind about our long-term goals.
The cake tastes good, it provides a simple and fast feeling of happiness and well-being. So, like animals, we follow that feeling (or should I say: like junkies?). On the other side, workouts are tiresome, they require energy and effort, sometimes even muscular pain. And the results are small and barely visible. So following the rules of operant conditioning we take the short-cut to find cheap and fast well-being in our lives.
In our subconsciousness we classified those two things as good and as bad. Although we may perfectly understand on our cognitive level that cake is “bad” for us and workouts are “good”, we let our subconscious take the control. And in that, ladies and gentlemen, we let our animal natures emerge. Animals don’t have a consciousness like we do, so they follow the calls of their subconsciousness. An animal will never have a long-term goal, an animal can’t plan years in advance nor execute that plan.
But we are still humans, we have an advantage over animals and that’s why we rule this planet. You see, whether it’s fitness, business management, poker or relationships,… sometimes you have to accept difficulties and loss on the short term, in order to win on the long-run.
- Your muscles have to tear first in order to grow bigger later
- You have to invest time and money in your business and accept up to 3 years of loss, before it starts feeding you
- Running a mathematically correct strategy in poker you may lose now and then, but on the long run you’ll still be much more successful than any other players
- In relationships you may have to leave your comfort zone, open your feelings, become emotionally vulnerable for some time and just give, before you receive anything back.
- There are others, in fact, endless examples in life of this principle.
I want you to take this very seriously. Sit down and write on a piece of paper where you want to be in 1, 3, 5, 10 years. How do you see yourself? Write down strategies how you want to reach those goals. Make a few copies of those plans and put them on the wall in your bedroom, your office, your toilet,… 
Remind your subconsciousness why you are willing to face difficulties, pain, loss, effort.
Approval of your subconsciousness may still be necessary in order to be motivated and energized. So use those tools to remind yourself why you are doing this. Why do you sacrifice yourself today. Why are you willing to face some pain. If you do this, after some time, things that felt “bad and painful” will instead motivate and energize you. You will just feel good about facing challenges and difficulties today and you will know that you’ll grow and become stronger tomorrow.
Yours truly,
- Wit