Stop the psychological snowball effect of instant gratification. Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t a characteristic made popular by Millennials. No, no. The Pleasure Principle is deeply rooted in our primitive “monkey brains,” and it will totally derail the course of your life if you let it. Here’s how to stop the snowball.
Our Primitive “Monkey Brains” at Work
It doesn’t matter how logical you are. It doesn’t matter how much willpower you have. It doesn’t even matter if the immediate reward is less than the long-term repercussions of procrastination. To our pleasure-seeking primal brains, that’s your “future self’s” problem.What Goes on Inside Your Head: Instant Gratification and Procrastination
The German language has a great word for our dopamine-seeking state. This phenomenon is described as “Lustprinzip.” (Say that five times fast.) Essentially, it’s our human instincts taking hold to do whatever it takes in the present moment to avoid pain and receive pleasure. The actions might be for a legitimate biological need, such as water or safety, but these days it’s often for psychological “needs” like MUST HAZ CHEEZBURGER.If you haven’t already guessed, it’s a veeeery fine mental line between “needs” and “wants.” Sure, you need food to survive, but do you need that bacon-covered burger to prevent starvation or would a healthy meal at home suffice? There’s a subtle essence of rationalizing here as well, which we’ll get to in a bit. Ultimately, Lustprinzip is just a piece of the puzzle.
The Akrasia Effect
Temptation, self-indulgence, and unfulfilled judgments are all players involved in instant gratification and procrastination. These timeless behaviors can’t so easily be written off as a result of our consumerist society. They, in fact, date back to ancient societies and were studied by philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle who assigned the word “akrasia” to these seemingly irrational actions. As Behavioral Psychologist, James Clear explains,“Akrasia is the state of acting against your better judgment. It is when you do one thing even though you know you should do something else. Akrasia is what prevents you from following through on what you set out to do.”
For example, you know that eating a vegetable-filled brown rice bowl would be better for your health and help you lose that last 10 pounds, yet you’re compelled to scarf down the greasy cheeseburger instead—logic be damned. (Your Monkey Brain also wants to know if you fancy a chocolate-covered banana for dessert? Ooh, ooh! Eeeh, eeeh!)
The Psychology Behind Rationalizing Our Behaviors
After eating the once-mouthwatering cheeseburger, your “future self”—you in the current moment—starts facing the flood of consequences. You feel sluggish and bloated. Regret sets in after calculating the 90-minute workout you now need to work off 1,247 calories. Questions start racing through your mind, “What on Earth made me do that? What’s wrong with me?” In times like these, your brain scrambles to explain why this situation played out this way.Coping Mechanisms
The brain’s response to your ill-advised actions is to rationalize, or “make excuses” to explain the behaviors. Whether it’s conscious or unconscious, you know this wasn’t a shining moment. Rationalization is yet another Monkey Brain mechanism that helps prevent negative emotions like sadness, guilt, or anxiety. On a deeper level, it’s trying to guard your perceived or internal self-image (i.e. what others think of you or what you think of yourself.)For example, after going against your better judgment and eating the cheeseburger, you’ll probably say things like:
- I deserved that cheat meal, I’ve worked out four times this week already.
- It was only one meal, that doesn’t mean anything.
- Being in shape is overrated anyway, people should just love me for me.
- At least I didn’t eat those donuts yesterday, so this really isn’t that bad.
In other words, no one wants to feel like they’re irrational, have no willpower, or that they’re a screw-up. Thus, the brain turns on “comfort mode,” gives you a mental hug, and sends you skipping on your way. On the one hand, it’s a useful adaptation that keeps us all from spiraling into a deep depression over small mistakes or even traumatic experiences. But on the other hand, rationalizing can lead to maladaptive or psychologically damaging behaviors. Such is the case for victims who excuse their abusive partners with skewed reasoning and stay in dangerous relationships.
Without recognizing and curbing this thought process, it will continue to add momentum to the rolling snowball of problematic choices and procrastination. We have to do things consciously to prevent it from happening.
How To Stop Procrastination & Avoid Lustprinzip
If you really want to put a hard stop to the Monkey Brain behaviors, there are three helpful tools.
Creating Commitment Devices
These beautiful little arrangements are basically ways you make it IMPOSSIBLE not to follow through with something. You’re removing all other options, any potential distractions, and whatever detours you’d be tempted to take. For example, if you’re trying to read a book after dinner instead of watching Netflix, put the entire TV in a locked storage room and give someone else the key. Now, you have no choice but to read.Look at your situation and see what might thwart your efforts. Too tempted to eat the junk food in the house? Throw it all away. Keep getting distracted by Facebook while you’re writing an article? Unplug your modem. Use commitment devices to make the whole process easy and temptation-free.
Look for areas of friction as well. For instance, you might be resisting the post-dinner reading because you don’t have a comfortable, well-lit place to do it. Perhaps you’re always tempted to eat junk food because you don’t have healthy food in the house.
Start With a Baby Bite
If you’re anything like me, just starting a new thing is the hardest part. There’s a certain level of anxiety and “what ifs” that come with starting new things. What if I mess it up? What if I can’t figure it out? What if it’s too hard? What if this takes too long? As it turns out, these anxieties are often unfounded and can be worse than just completing the task. (@jenncapestany did a great video on this recently.) Remind yourself that all you need to do is spend five minutes on it and you’re free to fail. Once you have a “baby bite” done, the rest is going to be much easier because the hardest part is over.
Break It Down & Get Specific
My favorite college professor, William Heywood, shared this strategy for getting things done. Since then, I’ve completed innumerable “dormant” to-dos, tackled colossal projects I never believed I’d be able to do, and started “adulting” better than I ever had. I mean... calling the insurance company? No way, I’ll deal with that when I die lol. So anyway, this strategy is quite simple:- Write down your task—be specific.
- Break it down into smaller completion steps.
- Be specific about the details (time, date, location, etc.)
It looks like this:
Task: My car needs new tires.- Research local mechanics on (time/date).
- Call three mechanics to get the best quote.
- Call (phone number) to schedule an appointment at the mechanic.
- See mechanic on (date/time) at (location).
When you commit yourself to a time and give every bit of information you’d possibly need, the task seems much more doable. That applies to anything from a fitness goal, planning a move across the country, or looking for a new job.
Take That, Monkey Brain!
In my experience, knowing what the problem is and understanding the “why” behind it makes it much easier to change. In this case, you’ll become aware of when your primitive habits start kicking in, how the brain rationalizes actions, and instead use the three procrastination-avoidance tools to get shit done. Let’s do this!
You should be really proud of this post! It's really well laid out, informative, and covers a very interesting subject.
I feel i don't do sooo bad with fulfilling my instant gratification brain, but MY GOD THAT BURGER LOOKS GOOD THOUGH RIGHT!
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Thank you! It's one that I put much more time into than some (although let's face it, I'm a perfectionist, so I spend way too much time on most posts lol).
This may just be the rationalization talking, but I think we deserve a little instant gratification here and there. ;)
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Fantastic post!!
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Thanks @knircky and I appreciate the upvote. :)
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Just wanted to say thanks for opening my eyes to some new aspects, namely Akrasia. Very interesting and insightful article. Not to mention the great presentation. I look forward to more from you @sharingeverybite. Keep writing!
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Thank you for the compliments! I, too, was fascinated by the Akrasia effect... there's so much we have to learn from ancient philosophers. Despite living in a completely different environment than us now, they still have timeless wisdom about psychology, science, behavior, and other topics.
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They do! Much is to be offered by cultures of the past.
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I really enjoyed this post, you write very well. Followed, resteemed.
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Thanks for the support! I checked out your profile and you are certainly one intelligent Steemian. Although your posts cover topics I'm hardly familiar with at all, you write in a way that the average "math/physics dummy" like me can grasp them. Looking forward to reading more from you! :)
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You should be proud of this post! I think it's really well done. I have to admit, though, that if faced with a veg-filled brown rice bowl and a juicy loaded up cheeseburger, I'm likely to come down with a nasty case of akrasia, lol!
On a serious note, this reminds me of the first video that I ever did, just this last fall. Making short videos had been recommended to me by a biz mentor, but I was terrified of being in front of a camera. I concocted every reason to NOT do it, and found reasons to keep putting off starting. Then that same mentor, who runs a gardening website, invited me to do a video interview. Gasp! I started typing up my usual noncommittal response (preparatory to cancelling in the future), and realized what I was doing. So I decided to use that interview as my first small step, and instead of prevaricating, I responded with a concrete date and time to do it. Boy am I glad that I did, because that was the opening that I needed to finally step in a more positive direction both with my business AND in facing really silly fears of mine. What do you know? It wasn't a tiger trying to eat me after all! Stupid monkey brain. Small steps can save the day though. I believe it!
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Thank you so much! And that first part made me laugh! "..a nasty case of akrasia" lol.
What a great story. Proud of you for taking the plunge... I have anxiety about doing videos, too, so I have no doubt the size of that mountain you were trying to climb over. It's crazy how often this happens in life and most of the time we can look back and laugh! "Why did I think this was so bad again??" Not to mention the relief of not having the thing (whatever it is) looming over you anymore.
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I am sooooo guilty of every one of those "coping mechanisms." I've resteemed this and I may just print it out and hang it on the fridge and next to my laptop. It will be like my Sicilian grandma looking at me with disappointment when I try to eat bad food or surf the web instead of writing 🤣.
As for getting new tires, my list is shorter:
"Need new tires"
Works like a charm 😉
In all seriousness, I'm really happy to have found your posts on here. This is exactly what I envision when people say "reward quality content," and much of it can get lost in the shit-post-storm.
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OMG 😂 I am cracking up over here. I'm a big fan of your "need new tires" list. lmao I can think of a few other lists that could go after your #1.
I'm sure I could do better, but currently suffering from a good case of I-haven't-had-my-morning-espresso-yet brain.
Anyway, I'm so glad you enjoyed the post. It's always very encouraging to hear that my writing hits a home run for people. :)
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Lol! Your list is great and matches well with my own extended repertoire. I actually use that line with hubby all the time. "I didn't get married so I could (change lightbulbs, fill the gas tank, top off the coal hopper, pick up the dog poo...)." He's an incredibly forbearing man ;)
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Puts another spin on the phrase "Money see money do"
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Did you mean "monkey see monkey do"? Or is this a spin on that phrase that I'm not familiar with?
In any case, my boyfriend (@shenanigator) said that I should definitely be following you, so I look forward to reading through your previous and future posts. :)
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Ha ha yes I did meant that. Forgive me, I have terrible dyslexia and when I write quickly it comes out wrong. I always have to look three times but I was busy when I wrote it. Yes - Monkey see monkey do -lol
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Totally understand, I do that myself! The Grammarly plugin helps catch a lot of my mistakes. :)
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Thanks, I will check out that plugin :)
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Nice post! I resteemed.
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Thanks so much, I appreciate you resteeming it!
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I would have read and commented positively much earlier today, but i was off having one of those cheeseburgers. How did you know I was going to choose a cheeseburger??
STEEM On !!
Dave
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The cats know all.
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Great article!! Motivational and practical!! Love it!!
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Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for reading!
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really loved ur post , checkout mine you might like it https://steemit.com/science/@whitedolphin/forefront-consciousness-and-healing-science-research-reports-in-the-field-8-9-july-2017-conference-encinitas-california
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I did enjoy that article. Are you sharing from another account of yours? Noticed that you're commenting from @danlupi but that post was written by @whitedolphin.
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very good
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ahhh, is the reason for my silver fix! ;-)
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Does this mean you're delaying instant gratification in place of hoarding silver?
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well, it's the going on my life(at this time) collecting Mexican numismatic silver coins and haha I only get paid once a month. So 7 more days to go! ;p
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Good information! Sometimes it surprises me that I sometimes need as much self-control help as my children do. We all have our own struggles.
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I hear ya! We all have our "vices" and exercising self-control is tough...I think as we become adults, the rationalizing kicks in even more, making it more difficult not to procrastinate or think, "just this one drink..." or "I'll only do it for a few minutes..." etc.
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You are so right!
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I m like
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Hahaha great GIF!
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this is so helpful.. thank you for sharing. :)
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Glad you enjoyed it!
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Great and interesting read! I like the William Heywood method... came in real handy to clean up my chaotic mess when I started to work from home.
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You all take care about your oral hygeine , physical hygeine , or whatever-hygeine it is .WHAT ABOUT THE MENTAL HYGEINE ?. Now just 20 mins a day can change your life .
read from the below link it will take not more than 2 mins .
https://steemit.com/life/@ronyy/deeper-than-the-deepest-sleep-yet-you-are-compltely-awake
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Definitely a good advice, however I would add a little bit of EFT to the process. You know? Stands for Emotional Freedom Technique.
It would make your system work at the speed of light, I send the link if you are curious about it.
EFT video from Gary Craig
By the way your post "Write you best blog ever in less than 60 min" is wonderful, it helped me a lot.
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Interesting you mentioned EFT. I've had a few people recommend that to me, including @kiwideb here on Steemit. (If I'm remembering correctly!) If you guys haven't connected yet, I'd recommend it—she's great!
So glad that post helped you out! :) If you ever need any more help, let me know!
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Thanks I´ll visit her.
Have a great day!
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this is a nice post. well done.
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Masih lemas steem nya masih kosong bagibdong steem nya sedikit yang boleh berbagi
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After trying to translate your comment in Indonesian/Malay, it seems like a copy/paste spam post. You also upvoted your own comment, furthering my opinion that it's spam. Therefore, I am flagging at 1%.
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