How to trick your mind into doing anything
Les brown said, “Do what is easy, and your life will become hard. Do what is hard, and your life will become easy.”
Read that again.
In enduring a difficult sport, on a daily basis, I have learned a lot about mind control. The capabilities that humans hold in their mental strength are almost boundless. Would you believe me if I told you there are easy, undemanding ways into tricking your own mind into doing just about anything. But, with mental strength, comes sacrifice. Unfortunately for you, if you really want to get out of your mental damaging addictions, you’re going to have to work. There will be some harsh takes on life, but you can learn to endure it. Within learning that, you elevate, almost significantly, into a newborn human being. And, that is why, you should keep on reading.
The root of today’s problem
We are all able to sit down for hours, scrolling on our phones, with our complete attention on a single screen. What differentiates us from being able to do this so effortlessly, for long periods of time with doing it for another task, like reading or working? It’s the dopamine levels in our body, straight and simple. Dopamine is often referred to as a pleasure molecule. What it truly makes us do, however, is desire things over others. That desire is what motivates us to complete certain tasks.
Phone addiction
We, as humans, are so drawn to receive instant gratification. Social media plays a huge role in giving us that feeling. By not knowing it, we become addicted to the easy clicks, going from one place to another within seconds, receiving bright red hearts and silly comments from people you haven’t talked to in years. This is what is expected of you though. Consumerism forces you into these never ending cycles of the need to gain online attention. We are so distracted, to the point where it almost feels like our liberties have been stolen always from us. Like our full potentials are long gone, un heard of, and our work ethic is lost somewhere in the between.
Skinner’s box
Graduate Harvard student and psychologist B.F. Skinner compared the human behavior of loving servitude to the way that a rat will work better if it was rewarded with food. His experiment on this is referred to as the Skinner box. It represents the idea that with negative reinforcement, rats would react negatively and reduce their level of work. When rewarded with food however, the rats became far more productive, as they kept wanting more and more.
This small representation, allows for a deeper message. Our little habits and proneness to our screen time is distracting us from reality, as we can so easily suppress our real feelings, ignore them, and live inside an idealistic world, while our freedom is being snatched away from our eyes within an instant.
With all what attracts us to our screens, we can find ways to break through them. Here are a couple of solutions:
1. Dopamine detox
While there can be some extreme suggestions of this method, I highly believe that a slow start, leads to consistent results and long term success. Detaching yourself completely from all external sources may be too difficult at first, and lead for a huge craving to older habits. Those external sources include, the internet, phone, computer, music, pornogrophy, and junk food. Something you can start with is, instead of these dopamine receptors, you will try to find internal sources of gratification which may come from something within your control. For example, going on a walk, meditating, reflecting, exercising, journaling, etc. Find one good habit in which you may be able to replace with a negative one. For example, instead of spending your time on your phone, you may want to put it away and try doing a home workout.
It could be anything, as we all have different attributes which allow us to have more desire over certain things. One may prefer to paint, cook, or practice an instrument. Whatever that may be though, setting a goal for ourselves to improve at that hobby will more likely allow us to want to do it more, hence leaving our phones for longer period of time. A sustainable way of ensuring this is by avoiding all your additive behaviors every once a week, and replacing them with healthier habits.
Our dopamine tolerance is what allows our bodies to adapt to any type of environment. For example, if you live in the heat, for a very long time, your body will feel extremely cold at the slightest hint of breeze. But, if for a week, you live in the snow, your body will soon adapt to the cold. It works the same way as for those healthier habits.
2. The power of control
With discipline, comes great sacrifice. At times in our life, we must no longer rely on our motivation as reason for work. There are voices in our heads that will try their best to drag us down, back into the deep hole of addiction to instant gratification. Voices that will try their very best, just to break you. For getting out of bed, becomes a huge task, just because of that voice, reminding you of all the easier things that you could rather do. We have all been there. We have all been a victim of that voice at one point, and there is no shame in that. Fortunately, though, we, humans have the great ability in fighting that voice. One strategy in doing that is mastering your emotions.
“Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions.” Eliud Kipchoge
3. Mastering your emotions
You have to simply accept that it will never be easy. Something that I noticed whenever I had a gallop day, laying in bed and scrolling on a screen, is that those were the days when I struggled the most to fall asleep. My mind had been distracted all day with different types of noises, colors, and mixed emotions, that all got messed up and lost within each other. My motive to getting off my phone, to neglecting all the things that I know I’m prone to do, was to have good sleep tonight. I mentally felt better, the next day and the one after that. Find your own motive.
I eventually found internal joy, and wondered if it was going to last. It lasted.
As a track athlete, there are days where I absolutely hate getting up before the sun, especially in the winter. However after forcing myself into doing it so many times, I reached a point where I no longer felt emotion when I woke up and got ready to go. I was able to adapt. I did not see it for the hard duty that it was, but for the excitement I knew I was going to get when I was out and running. This is the beauty of controlling the mind. Being able to get yourself to do all these great things, and not question how you did them.
You have to keep humbling yourself. You are not the main character, nobody cares about your accomplishments. The truth may be hard to accept, but it’s relevant to your way of thinking, and the way you perceive the world. Allow yourself to progress over long periods of time, teach yourself how to be patient, there is no rush. People who want the easy way out will often ask questions like how do I get abs, fast? Shut the hell up, that’s how. Because, it isn’t supposed to be fast.
“Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
— Frank Outlaw
4. The power a journal holds
One way that I keep track of everything in my life, is through journaling. Through all my 12 years of experience in journaling, year after year, with a new journal, I have noticed a pattern. I have always referred to my little writings as a certain theme. They each fall into certain categories, in which I have found essential in keeping one’s emotions in check. These categories are: Thoughts, notes, ideas, to-do’s, and personal goals. Under thoughts goes everything. A dump of randomicity and all the feels. Under notes goes anything that I can write down from a lesson, YouTube video, book, or person. To-Do’s are my daily tasks, and those are crucial. I need to always be aware of how my day will go, what are the things I’m working towards today? Lastly, comes personal goals, and those refer to all my aspirations and accomplishments I desire for myself within the coming months and years. I especially love writing those ones because I can always come back to them and reflect on whether or not I was able to achieve them.
