How many time have we made changes to certain behaviors only to realize that they don’t stick? You started exercising regularly for a few weeks or months but then life got busy. You worked on proper diet as part of your new year resolutions but failed to stay consistent. You practiced the principle of “living within your mean” but revert back to being an impulsive consumer. You set aside more times to focus on your academic performance but… and the list goes on with many items on repeat.
To reprogram the mind for lasting change, one needs to understand the two major driving forces that shape our behaviors: pain and pleasure.
1. Pain
We have experienced pain (physical, mental, and emotional) since the day we were born. We have learned to associate pain with certain behaviors or activities, which we later try to avoid. Even though we understand the need to work hard to achieve great results, we oftentimes resort to the easy way out simply to avoid pain.
2. Pleasure
Pleasure is addictive, which could be constructive or destructive depending on how it is pursued. We all seek pleasure and would do many things to gain that feeling. For example, children would do what they are told just to gain the pleasure of love and acceptance, which are basic human needs. Students strive for academic excellence in order to feel a sense of accomplishment and significance. Managers work extremely hard in order to get the pleasure from a year-end bonus and whatnot.
The Balancing Act
Just as economic decisions are based on the cost-benefit analysis, our behavioral decisions are based on the pain-pleasure principle. The human mind is wired to avoid pain and to gain pleasure. People have different definitions of pain and pleasure, which are subjective based on a person’s experience and the meanings given to those experience. People values and beliefs determine what they consider as pain or pleasure. Those values and beliefs are sometimes the limiting factors of our decision making process.
Reprogram the Mind to Take Lasting Action
By linking more pain to not taking action and more pleasure to taking action, we trick our mind into taking action.
For example, when we link a lot of pain to not doing regular exercise (eg. the pain of being overweight, the pain of not being able to enjoy the benefits of longevity, the pain of suffering a premature death, the pain of developing illnesses such as diabetes or high blood pressure, etc…) and a lot of pleasure to carry out regular exercise (eg. the pleasure of having a fit body, the pleasure of being able to enjoy a wide variety of food, the pleasure of having more flexibility with postural movements, etc…) your mind will be triggered to the idea of maintaining a regular physical activity.
Is it really that simple to reprogram our mind to take action? Yes it is.