When wanting to make sustainable changes in our lives, creating new habits will not happen overnight. But we’ve adopted a culture where we want instant results, which can have negative repercussions on our long-term goals.
I hold my hands up myself because I sometimes fall into that trap. For example, towards the end of last year I joined Lisa Nestor's virtual fitness bootcamp, which, after almost 2 years of constantly working from home, helped me to get moving more. As well as regular exercise, it helped me to make sure I did at least 10,000 steps a day on a consistent basis.
Seeing the steps pass the 10,000 mark and being able to share that with the group was a feel good factor, an almost instant reward. But when it came to the core strengthening exercises, I found it wasn’t as easy to feel as motivated for these.
Many people give up on their goals when they pursue an immediate reward
I think the reason for this is that you don’t get the immediate reward for doing the core exercises like you get with the step count, and you also get ‘pain’. However, I knew that in the long term the core exercises would make a big difference, and I had to keep telling myself this. That and tap into the encouragement and accountability that came with being part of the group. And it paid off, because 3 months down the line, I am feeling the benefits.
This is how it may be for many of you when in pursuit of your goals. You want immediate results, and when you don’t see those results quick enough, you become discouraged and give up.
Creating an environment for myself that was conducive to me sticking to doing those core exercises was crucial. If left to my own devices I may have only pursued the cardio exercises, and getting my step count in, for the short-term reward when my smart watch informed me, I’d reached my 10,000 steps for the day. The core strengthening exercises do not register on the step counter, but they are also important.
Don’t let the temptation of short-term reward distract you from working towards your goals
When I coach leaders who want to change their mindset and behaviours, some of them would probably love it if I could wave a magic wand and their situation be changed in an instant. I tell them they have had 30… 40… 50… years or so of thinking and behaving the way they do, so sustainable change is not going to happen overnight.
Don’t be tempted for the quick fix that paint over the cracks. Whilst you may see an immediate difference, it will most likely only be temporary. That is why I don’t tell my clients what to do, rather, I facilitate the process of them identifying for themselves the course of action to take that is best for them. Why? Because this way, it is more likely to lead to them making the changes that they want, and ones that are sustainable.
With an increasing emphasis on immediacy, materialism and everything being instant, we are seduced into putting off long-term but ultimately more satisfying goals. Many of us are choosing the short-term reward over achieving our long-term goals.
We are constantly bombarded with increasingly, irresistible temptations that distract us from our greater goals. Because so many things have become so easily and instantly available, we want more of that. And whilst there are many advantages to some of the things we get instantly, there are also disadvantages.
This insta generation wants instant gratification
We are living in what I call the insta generation. Instant gratification has seeped into so many areas of our lives, and many of us probably don’t stop and think about the implications of this. Take for example a TV series. Gone are the days when you had to wait a whole week to watch the next episode, now we can binge on a whole season in couple of days. But there can be negative consequences when we binge watch in this way.
When we get a reward, we get a surge of dopamine in our brains, the chemical which makes us feel good. It can increase our mood, our motivation, and because it is pleasurable, we want more of it. Low levels of dopamine are said to lower our motivation and make us lack enthusiasm. This can result in us looking to get these short-term fixes of it at the expense of our long-term goals.
Scrolling through our social media feeds can give us that instant gratification as we scroll in anticipation of a ‘reward’. This is what gives us that dopamine effect. Something which social media companies are said to be aware of. Likes, comments, and notifications from the social media platforms can provide us with the means for triggering a regular supply of dopamine.
You may recall that it was previously reported that Instagram’s notification algorithms sometimes withheld ‘likes’ so that they could be delivered in larger bursts. This was to take advantage of our dopamine driven desire for social validation, a claim denied at the time by Instagram.
Even goldfish have better attention spans than us!
Our attention span is not what it used to be. One study shows that at 9 seconds, even goldfish have a better attention span than us humans. The human attention span is said to have diminished from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2018. With a reduced attention span, delaying gratification in pursuit of our long-term goals, can seem boring. This is even though we know achieving those goals will give us far greater benefits.
These constant distractions that provide us with instant gratification and a dopamine rush can negatively affect our motivation towards pursuing our long-term goals. If this applies to you, what can you do to delay gratification, create for yourself a conducive environment, and actively strive towards achieving your long-term goals?
As for me, in terms of creating a conducive environment for my health and fitness goals, I enjoyed it so much, I signed up for another 10 weeks of the fitness bootcamp.
Every year at the beginning of January, I see untold people setting goals or making New Year resolutions, only to find that within just a few months (weeks even), they've abandoned them.
As humans, we are goal oriented, always striving to achieve something. Goals are essential to giving our lives meaning and purpose otherwise without them, we would wander through life aimlessly.
But what makes it easy for some of us to constantly achieve our goals, whereas some of us always give up at the first hurdle?
First published on LinkedIn.
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