The Path To Focus: Doing To Feel

Have you ever thought to yourself; I'll do it when I feel like it? Of course you have, as have I, and every other person on the planet above the age of about five. This proves (circumstantially of course)that it isn't just you who gets an attack of the lazys now and again, it is an actual human instinct.

The problem with this instinct, is that it often takes us away from what we should be doing. Whether it is tidying your room or house, to studying for that test, or researching that new idea you had last week. The things we put off are always the ones that will give us the most benefit.

The question is; why do we do this, and how can we avoid this lazy syndrome?

The Dopamine Pact

Every single living being on this planet with a backbone has a set of receptors in the brain which react to the pleasure hormone dopamine.

Without dopamine, life itself loses all meaning. You may think that's a somewhat dramatic statement, however it has been shown via experimentation, that if you remove the dopamine receptors from a mouse. The poor creature will simply sit there in front of a pile of food and starve.

This is because hunger, along with pretty much every other biological response you can have, is triggered by the anticipation of a dopamine hit.

In other words, the reason you feel hunger, and subsequently enjoy eating food is because of dopamine.

The reason you enjoy getting high or drunk, the reason you enjoy sex, art, long walks, working out, is all because of our friend dopamine. In that sense it is very much your personal internal motivator, getting you up off that couch and springing you into action.

The History Of Gratification

Let us take a second now and use our imaginations to take a journey back in time, around 450,000 years ago to the mid palaeolithic era on the plains of Africa.

We have been using simple stone tools for at least a million years at this point, and soon we will begin to migrate around the globe.

If you were an average person at that time, then your days are filled with the task of finding enough food and making sure you and your family are warm and dry.

That's it, you have no taxes to worry about, no rent, no loan or credit card repayments, absolutely everything you do is based in the here and now. If you see an animal, you kill it, eat it, then wear its skin to keep warm. Simple.

In much the same way that your desire today is driven by dopamine, so too is your ancestral self. However for that fellow, things are simple, dopamine drives him to act in the here and now, and he is immediately rewarded for it.

You however, live in a society whereby delayed gratification is rewarded far higher than things that give you an instant dopamine hit. The problem comes when you realise that evolution acts very, very . . . very slowly.

In other words, there is little difference between you and your distant cousin roaming the plains a few hundred thousand years ago. Yet human society has become increasingly complex.

Now you can get a job, start a business or take a course, all of these things give you delayed gratification. You get paid at the end of the week so you can eat and drink, you create a business so that when it is profitable you can use the profits to have a good time. Similarly the information you learn on a course could lead to great things.

The problem is, your dopamine receptors don't know that, they simply want a hit NOW! Not in a week, or a month, or five goddamn years, they want to feel good now.

So drugs, alcohol and the internet are far more attractive to us, as they simply give in to our evolutionary urge to be instantly gratified.

A Time To Do Not To Feel

So what to do when we live in a society that rewards delayed gratification, yet our bodies are wired to favour instant rewards?

Simple, we do what no other creature on this planet (as far as we've observed) can do, we use our intellect over our evolution.

Some of us have already managed this state without any prompting. Look at professional athletes for instance, they have to practice their skill over and over again. Day in day out, they drill themselves with repetition, to the point of absolute boredom.

This is where the pros and amateurs are separated, because the amateur gives up, or dials back his practice, the pro keeps going.

Their secret?

Instead of saying I'll do this when I feel like it, the pro has managed to rewire her brain and say;

I'll feel like it when I'm doing it.

Love The Process

It really is as simple as that, anytime you want to put something off with that dreaded phrase; I'll do it when I feel like it, you simply turn it round to, feeling like it when you're doing it.

The next phase is when you're doing it, to cement the rewiring of your brain by smiling, whistling, and/or thinking happy thoughts.

This is why in many armies, they sing/chant as they are being drilled. Usually you only sing or whistle when you're happy, therefore if you force yourself to do it when you're going through a hard time, eventually your brain will start to respond positively to that task.

Singing and marching to fool brain into thinking marching is fun

Lastly you have to visualise yourself doing that task, and you better make sure you're enjoying the hell out of it in your visualisations.

This is because the brain finds it nigh on impossible to separate real memories, from implanted visualisations. Therefore on a deep level, you will start to believe that you enjoy the process. Whether it's getting up at 4 a.m. for a run, or sitting down at your computer for five hours to type up your dissertation. Whatever it is, you will start to enjoy it.

Conclusion

We are hard wired to prefer instant rewards over delayed gratification.

Everything you do is driven by the desire to experience dopamine.

The difference between pros and amateurs, is that the professionals power through the boredom of repetitive, yet necessary tasks, whilst the amateurs simply wait until they feel motivated (which is never).

You can effectively rewire your brain by falling in love with the process.

Feel like it when you're doing it, as opposed to doing it when you feel like.

The Path To Focus: The Story So Far:

The Path To Focus: How To Start A New Habit

The Path To Focus: Stacking Your Way To Success

The Path To Focus: Controlling Your Environment

The Path To Focus: Desire Bundling Changing Want To Need

The Path To Focus: Leave Your Goals In The Valley Of Disappointment

The Path To Focus: Mould Your Identity With Habit Modelling

The Path To Focus: Clearing The Path - A Life Without Internet

HOW DO YOU MOTIVATE YOURSELF INTO ACTION? DO YOU HAVE LITTLE TRICKS AND TIPS TO PASS ON? OR PERHAPS YOU STRUGGLE WITH FOCUS AND MOTIVATION AND YOU WANT TO TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND? AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!

Title image: Logan Lambert on Unsplash

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