Make your life harder (in order to make it easier)

   I thought I’d give credence to a funny little idea today. Not for any particular reason, but I like what it says, about habits, about life, and about our personal power to control our own destiny. 

Little things shape your life

   Every decision we make in our day-to-day life is going to affect us. Some more than others, and a lot of little decisions add up to one big effect. In fact, little things everyday can actually end up changing our lives. But every single action and decision counts towards making some things harder and others easier. And in this way, we are constantly balancing effort with potential benefit in our heads–sometimes consciously, other times not so much.

   And I know it’s unconventional but today I want you to consider making your life harder, on purpose. Because sometimes there is freedom within constraints. The freedom to build your life the way you want. 

Make it hard on yourself

   You don’t want to just indiscriminately do the opposite of whatever your instincts are and hope that saves your life. It won’t. But delayed gratification is scientifically proven to be more rewarding. (Read here to find out more about delayed gratification vs. immediate gratification.) And the only way to get delayed gratification is to make things harder on yourself in the short term. To stick to your plan even though you’re tired. To say no to the fun thing while you’re working on something important. And to train yourself to see the difference between luxury and habit. Don’t give up what you want most for what you want now. 

Your environment

   But there’s another kind of life approach that involves making things harder on yourself too. When you’re trying to build a specific habit, you will want to construct a plan for how you go about this habit. And make it as hard as humanly possible to do it the way you’re trying to break yourself of. An easy example, if you’re trying to eat healthy, don’t keep candy and cakes in the house. Make yourself have to get up off the couch and go buy them. But that goes for all kinds of things. If you’re trying to watch less TV, unplug it from the wall, cover it with a sheet, or put it in a really inconvenient place in the room. Basically, make it harder on yourself to take the easy way out. We’re hard-wired to take the path of least resistance as humans. So do whatever you can to make that path the path that you desire for yourself.

   That’s it for today, just a short little blurb to remind you that sometimes, it’s worth it to make your life harder if it ultimately gets you to where you want to be. If you’re interested in more talk about habits and achieving your goals, check out this post about how bad habits are made, or this one about how to trick yourself into getting things done.