Empower Newsletter – February 2019

‘we will do more to avoid pain than we will do to feel pleasure’

 

For example if you want to become healthier, you might see dieting and exercising as being more painful than not looking and feeling good.  If this is the case you probably avoid them like the plague.

 

The thing about this pain is that it’s only perceived pain! And the good thing is that we can change our perception of what equals pain and what equals pleasure.

 

So why not trick yourself into creating less pain around something you want to achieve and creating more pain around doing something that you are currently doing that isn’t serving you or giving you what you ultimately want.

 

By changing your perception of not liking to diet and/or exercise from painful to pleasurable, and eating unhealthy food and/or not exercising to being painful you will ultimately get what you want.

 

So how do you change something you perceive as being painful to seeing it in a more positive way?

 

You can start by seeing it as more pleasurable than the alternative.  And the alternative in this case is continuing to be unhealthy, overweight, feeling flat, not living life to the fullest, etc.

 

So when you think about eating something unhealthy, instead of thinking that it will be nice, think of it as something that’s going to stop you from getting what you ultimately want.  Maybe you can think that if you eat it it will be the equivalent to one hours’ worth of exercise.  Surely you work too hard to waste it with something that will give you 1 minutes’ worth of perceived pleasure by eating it!

 

It doesn’t matter what you need to think or say to yourself as long as you perceive it as more painful than the alternative.

 

If you perceive exercise to be avoided at all costs, you can start by thinking up ways to at least make exercise okay.

 

Arrange to walk with a friend, go to a group fitness class at the gym so you can socialise at the same time, look forward to walking so you can catch up on your phone calls or listen to a talking book or your favourite music.  Whatever you need to think or say to yourself to make it okay is perfect.

 

Do the opposite for eating unhealthy foods or not exercising.  The more pain you can create around it the better!

 

No matter what it is you want to achieve, changing your perception of what is painful and pleasurable will start you on the right track of ultimately getting what you want.

 

Avoid

 

1.     to keep away from; keep clear of

2.     to avoid a person; to avoid taxes

3.     to prevent from happening

 

 

 

When it comes to motivation and why people do the things that they do, it comes down to the simple science of pain versus pleasure. In its simplest form, all decisions that human beings make are to either gain pleasure or to avoid pain. Any act can be broken down this way. Why do you brush your teeth? Why would a woman spend precious time applying makeup before going out? Why would someone go to the gym every day? All of these actions can be sliced down to an individual trying to attain pleasure and/or avoid the pain that an action is going to bring. It’s all pain and pleasure.

~ titaniumsuccess.com ~

 

 

“They say though that we do more to avoid pain than we do to gain pleasure. So it is when the pain becomes too much that we finally find the courage to make changes.”

~ Bronnie Ware ~

 

‘As my brain is focused on the moment, to achieve my goals I come up with ways of making future pain seem more real now.’

 

 

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