Pain, Pleasure, and Depression

I’ve trained myself to be the type of person who’s emotions are almost entirely independent from external events.  Unlike most people, I draw my emotions from within.  As long as I’m taking consistent action towards my goals and living in alignment with my values I’m able to the happiest person I know.

On the flip side, if I’m constantly procrastinating or doing things I know I shouldn’t be doing I quickly enter a depressed state.  Most people think this is a negative character trait, and I used to as well, but now given the choice I would actually chose to have my emotions function this way.

It’s been shown that people are motivated by two things.  The avoidance of pain and the acquisition of pleasure.  Someone who’s overweight may feel somewhat motivated to lose weight because they know that doing so would make them look better.  However, they most likely won’t begin exercising because they associate the pain of exercising to be greater than the pleasure of losing weight.

Multiply this by the fact that it takes several weeks of exercising to begin noticing results and it’s no wonder we live in a nation of obesity.  Most people are slaves to instant gratification because of their hunter-gatherer  brains.  We’re genetically designed to get things while the getting is good.  Unfortunately, this is a less than optimal way to live in today’s society.

The difference between myself and most people is that I’m aware how to effectively use the pain vs pleasure response to my advantage.  I’ve consumed enough personal development material, and trained myself to hold enough empowering beliefs that the overwhelming majority of the time it’s actually easier for me to do the right thing than waste time or procrastinate.

In other words, the main reason I’m able to live what appears to be a massively disciplined lifestyle is that I would actually have to go against the pain vs pleasure response to sink to the average person’s level.  I don’t have superhuman amounts of discipline.

The only difference between myself and the average person is that going against my values is so painful for me that doing so just isn’t an option.

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