and full of regret."
- Brenda Buster
In my blog this past Monday, I was talking about that every single choice that we make has an effect on us. We might no see it right away. It might take years for it to show up in our life, but it will show up. Good or bad. Every choice that we make will matter.
When we decide to start making better choices in our lives, there will be traps on our path to success and unfortunately these traps will sometimes knock us of our path of making healthy and positive choices.
One trap that we will be faced with is Invisible Results. If you missed my BLOG from Monday here it is http://karinglannstam.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-invisible-results.html
Today I want to mention another huge trap that we will have to face and that might knock us off our path to success and it is, Instant Gratification.
As a society we have become addicted to immediate gratification. We want what we want, and we want it NOW. We have become very impatient. We want to be gratified and pleasured, right now.
We have lost the ability to delay gratification.
When you delay instant gratification,
you will experience long term satisfaction.
Here is an example: After dinner you still want something else to eat. You are deciding between a wonderful sweet dessert, like chocolate cake or a small piece of fruit.
What would you pick?
If you pick the sweet dessert you will feel happy, joyful, warm, satisfied. You get pleasured and you get gratified.
What happens if you pick the small piece of fruit? Not much. You won't feel none of these above. In other words you will get nothing.
Now here is the big problem for most of us, when we are trying to make positive choices. If we make the wrong choice, we will feel wonderful and we are rewarded. If we make the right choice, we don't get much or sometimes nothing. No pleasure. No gratification. No Happiness. No attention. No warm and fuzzy feeling.
Unfortunately we get started early in life with this immediate gratification. When was the first time you got introduces to dessert as a child? I bet it was very early in your life. After that we learn how to constantly pleasure ourselves.
In today's world we are bombarded with solicitation of instant gratification. Junk food, candy, soda, shopping, gambling, alcohol, TV, email, FB and cell phones, just to name a few.
All day and every day we are getting pulled on, to gratify ourselves. Messages are everywhere.
This makes it very difficult for us to stay on our path of making positive choices.
What will give us short term pleasure, candy, dessert, TV or FB.....create long term pain
On the other hand, short term pain, created long term pleasure.
Jim Rohn says in one of his quotes.....the pain of discipline weighs ounces, but the pain of regret weighs tons.
Don't exchange what you want the most
for what you want in the moment.
Learn to do the things that you don't want to do.
Do you want to go to the gym after work and put in a workout, instead of going home and sit on the couch and watch TV? Probably not.
Do you rather have the salad for lunch instead of the hamburger? Probably not.
Do you rather have a small piece of fruit instead of a candy bar or dessert? Probably not.
Do you want to make the phone call that will make you feel uncomfortable? Probably not
Do you want to go up to this person and introduce yourself and risk being rejected? Probably not.
In a heat of an argument with someone, do you want to tell them that they are right and that you are sorry? Probably not.
Do you rather save your money instead of buying that new purse? Probably not.
Do you rather go to "happy hour" with your friends instead of going home and work on your goals? Probably not.
What you don't want to do is probably exactly what you should do.
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