Best-selling author Tony Robbins once wrote that the force that continuously compel us to do what we do is either out of the need to avoid PAIN or our desire to gain PLEASURE. With this, each one of us is capable of making change instantly.
Maybe you are already suffering from diabetes, obesity or any medical condition yet you still eat rice, lechon or any food that is detrimental to you. Maybe you have experienced financial loss yet you seem to be doing the same things that made you a loser. Maybe you have a kid and you know that demand for money will increase as he will be going to school soon, but still you can’t seem to force yourself in looking for ways to augment your income.
Why and what is the solution for this?
Why.The reason why these things happen because you allow Pain and Pleasure to use you rather than you using Pain and Pleasure to control your life. If you want to take control of your life, you have to understand this. If not, you will be in reactionary mode for the rest of your life. What are the signs? If procrastination is your favorite pastime. Procrastination is you know what you are going to do yet you don’t do it. Why not? Because doing it now is more painful than putting it off.
Take smoking for example. If you are a smoker, you know that smoking is bad for your health. Isn’t the graphic on the pack enough to tell you that it is BAAADD for your health? Isn’t it enough to tell what smoking can lead you to? Instead, they rationalize their habit: it makes them more creative, it calms them, it makes them cool,.. maybe these are true. But the real, undeniable truth is you will suffer from lung cancer or any pulmonary disease. Smokers know this already. The reason they still don’t stop because they haven’t experienced it yet. They wait for it until they feel putting it off becomes more painful.
What. You use pain and pleasure to shape your destiny. You need to link images or thoughts to pain and pleasure to fuel change. What do I mean?
I am overweight by about 30 pounds. My problem is I love to eat. I have not just sweet tooth but sweet teeth. I love cakes, muffins. My favorite is Krispy Kreme and Max’s fried chicken with rice. Mentioning them already makes my stomach hungry. Just yesterday I ate two original glazed doughnuts. Can’t resist. Ok so how will I lose the excess weight?
This is my plan. Everytime I see rice, cakes, fried food, I will link images of pain such as the pain of not fitting into that slim fit jeans I have been wanting to wear, the pain of not able to run around and play with my boy in the park, the pain of not living long enough to see my boy grow up and become the successful person we have always wanted him to be. I will zero in on these images in my mind instead of focusing on the short term pleasure I will get from eating.
In my plan, I will be using pain as my friend versus the pleasure I get from eating. Because the force is stronger when the food is already in front of you, it would greatly help to ask for support from the people around you. In our household, I already asked our cook not to cook rice and prepare as much as possible vegetables and soup. Get an Accountability Partner. It’s hard to go to the gym alone. The Accountability Partner is your gym buddy. You go to the gym together. With your partner, going to the gym is not hard anymore.
We all have dreams in our hearts. Take time to know what they are and have the courage to pursue them. Take control of your life. Reorganize your life if you need to. Ask God for help and He will be sending a throng of angels to you.
God never fails.
Ern Ynion 