how to break through the winter ice
this is the moment where everything feels uninteresting. from working on your projects, to hitting your deadlines at work, maybe even the thought of preparing yourself a meal sounds too tedious, like it doesn't matter.
the ice has formed.
how has this happened?
I mean, I could've sworn just yesterday everything was fine.
well, multiple things happened.
view yourself as a test subject.
for completing your task, you're fed a nacho chip. how amazing, we all love nacho chips.
this nacho chip is your feedback loop and rewards you based on your output.
when I complete a task, I get a nacho chip.
my efforts are rewarded.
effective? yes
unless
the test subject itself is in control of the lever to feed itself instead.
giving the control to the test subject itself would eliminate the WHOLE purpose of your reward system.
any rat or monkey would just pull the lever whenever they were hungry and whether they did a task or not would be irrelevant.
they will be rewarded not for their output, they will be rewarded for whenever they feel like being rewarded.
this is where the issue resides. now it does not feel like a reward. it feels like a necessity.
so let's take real life examples into paper here.
you wake up, make yourself a coffee and by the time it's 9AM you've checked X enough times to actually sufficiently read up on (relevant) news.
you've already started rewarding yourself from the moment you have woken up.
although this might not feel like it, it is a major fault.
the daily small distractions add up to us, making us keep track of a thousand ongoing discussions.
you're literally spamming the reward button.
okay smartass, how do I overcome this issue then?
whether it be after work, or when you wake up, or during your free time:
the MOMENT you get the urge to do 'SOMETHING'
you do... wait here it comes.... NOTHING.
nothing??
yeah.. nothing.
nothing.
just.
stare into a wall.
"I want to go on -"
stare into nothingness.
silence.
so let's review our reward system, how it went wrong, how we could prevent it.
the issue came into hand because the lever was handed to a smart, talented, handsome individual (you) but throughout the long run they slipped little extra rewards in between, thinking not much else.
this diluted you.
the more you're diluted, the less interesting everything gets.
so there's essentially two ways of solving this issue.
the first one would be my case, where you could have guessed, there's a reason why I'm writing this up.
the second one is something beautiful.
and that's you.
your projects aren't what you're making. your job isn't what your doing.
what you're doing is, is creating you.
each day that goes into you are just as important.
so knowing this, what would you do to prevent this issue from happening again?
balance.
this is where balance comes into play.
you need to find a balance.
you cannot just fist ram it in either direction.
this is not stable and will simply be a short lived solution.
you need to find a stable rythmic approach which makes your days feel just right.
do the hard work first. reward yourself with whatever it is you want after.
work first. reward after.
work first. reward after.
every. day.
the moment you feel like it's unnecessary and you feel like you can slip some rewards here and there. snap back.
don't make it a habit.
work first. reward after.
this is the way it should be. this is the ideal approach.
how hard it is for you to fight your impulses doesn't matter. the action you take does.
whether you give in or not is what will define you as you.
if you think you've done enough as a person, you can give in, and reward yourself as much as you want.
but if you don't think you've done enough yet,
well, what are you still reading this for?
get to work, silly.