Overcoming Instant Gratification

In my previous article, I mentioned instant gratification and how it can come in the way of our goals. The number of people focusing on instant gratification has never been higher. This is quite interesting because most of us are aware of the long-term dangers of instant gratification.

When I was first introduced to this concept in a TED Talk shown in college I had an aha moment. I finally realized why I had been procrastinating so much. As I sat in class aimlessly staring at the projector’s screen, daydreaming about how much life will improve after I stop the instant gratification monkey (all while the video was on, by the way) I felt like a changed man.

“The 20,000-word submission that’s due in two months? Ha! I’ll do it right after reaching home.” I thought. But no prizes for guessing what actually happened. I ended up finishing the paper a few minutes before submission ended. In fact, ALL my college projects were submitted this way, some well after the deadline. We’ve all been there, right?

This puzzled me. Why? Because the TED Talk was inspiring and it made me feel like I should be working instead of killing time binging TV shows. But you see that’s the thing. It made me feel like I should be more productive instead of making me feel like I want to be productive. There’s a big difference between those two statements. To learn more, read the book Emotional Agility by Susan David. It talks about this among other things.

From what I experienced, feeling like you should be doing something is one of the first steps to wanting to do something. And while external motivation (such as the TED Talk in my case) can handhold you to the “should” stage, it is internal motivation (such as clarity of your goals and genuine passion) which will take you to the “want” stage. Understanding this difference is especially important if you are struggling with sticking to deadlines or not feeling motivated enough, or even if you’re becoming too forgetful of your tasks.

The real question now is how do you get that internal motivation? Well, for one it’s internal so you gotta find it within yourself. You have to discover it yourself. After reading a few books, watching several videos and going through something similar myself, I feel the most important thing you can do to discover your internal motivation is to continue exploring. Sounds a bit cheesy, doesn’t it? It is. But just because something sounds a bit cheesy doesn’t mean it won’t work 😉 The more you learn about various industries, jobs, businesses, etc. the more clarity you will get about what is it that you are truly passionate about. If I let my inner TV-buff take over for a second, as Lucifer says – “what is it that you truly desire?”.

And once you discover what you truly desire and are passionate about, explore even more. Find your aha moment. It can be a slow process and you might lose confidence but when you discover what you want it will change your thinking. It will help you overpower your inner instant gratification monkey. A quote by Neal Maxwell has always stuck with me:

“Never give up what you want most for what you want today.”

Neal Maxwell

If you align your goals and actions well, you could even use instant gratification to your advantage! But I might talk more on that in a later post 🙂