How to do what you need to do
As we go through life, we become self aware that we should be doing certain things in a certain way in order to improve, maintain and have a better life. However, even though we know we ought to do activities that would benefit us, we just don’t do it.
I’m going to use this post that I am writing right now as an example to show you that you can do the same if you really want to.
In order to do what you know you should be doing, you ought to to keep in mind four things. These four things are time, energy, easy to do and reward.
Time
The first thing that we ought to become aware is time. Yes, time as we know it. The continue progress of existence and events in our life. You see, regardless of what you do, time is going to pass. Whether is good or bad. Whether it’s beneficial or not beneficial, time still going to pass.
One interesting thing. The longest living human that has being recorded is about 120 years old. Therefore, you as a human have the possibility to live that long.
As time continue, we notice a trend in human history. Life expectancy is increasing. Human are living longer.
There are various school of thoughts on why humans are living longer.
One school of thought is that we have changed our environment to the point that allow human to live longer but human has not evolve. We have always being able to live that long.
Another school of thought is that we are evolving as human in a cellular level which in turn allow us to live longer and longer as time passes.
I understand that some people might like to live forever young and not age and get old. Some people might do something about that if they feel that they getting too old. But if I were to gamble, I would definitely put my money on survival instinct or self-preservation.
In general, the strongest human drive is survival instinct and self-preservation. You see, if you were to accidentally hurt or cut yourself, your cells will automatically start the process of closing and repairing that small cut. They do this even if the part of you that is self-aware doesn’t want that.
These human cells would still do their job, regardless of what you want. Because they have their own self-preservation
So, the human body has organs and many cells. Each of these organs and cells has one or many jobs to do and a purpose. One of these purpose is to survive.
Therefore, whether you think that the mind is a function of the body or the body is a function of the mind.
There is a part of you that is self-aware.
There is another part of you, the many cells in your body that would do their things regardless of what the self-aware you want. Hence, you might get to live to 120 years or more.
We don’t know when this journey of our is going to end, it could end today, tomorrow, or it could end in 120 years from now.
We do know that the self-preservation and survival instinct will try to hold on to this life regardless of what your self-awareness want.
One of the best course of action is to enjoy the journey. In order to enjoy the journey in this current physical world we live in. Physical health and financial wealth is necessary.
Physical health is simple to explained. When you are in physical pain, your priority changes to stop the pain. You just want to be healthy again.
Financial wealth, if you were the only human on earth then you would not need financial wealth. You would not need money. But since you are not the only human on earth, we have to coexist with other human.
So far we have being going over the important of time, and I hope you grasp the important of time, since many people take time for granted. Now that you are aware of time, let’s us go to energy.
Energy
Energy is the human vitality and strength that we required in order to maintain the mental and physical activities that we experience and do through our journey know as life.
We use energy in everything we do, even when we are sleeping, we are using energy. Remember, the cells in your body would do their things whether you are self-aware or not.
But there is problem.
Energy is limited.
Everyday we have to keep resting in order to replenish the energy we use through out the day. The body can replenish it’s own energy if it has enough resources. Like the fat in your body would convert into energy if you don’t feed the body.
Or
You have to feed the body food so the body can convert the food into energy for current or later use.
When we wake up well rested, we are full of energy. As we go through the day, our energy is being depleted until we get to the point were we have to rest in order to replenish the energy.
That’s why is ought to be best to do what you know you should be doing first thing in the morning or as soon as you wake up rested.
This bring us to easy to do.
Easy to do
We tend to gravitate toward pleasure and we tend to avoid pain. So, lets try to use this to our advantage.
Whether is beneficial or not, why do you think you keep drinking the beverage you drink everyday?
Most likely is because you like it. So it’s pleasurable.
And it’s easy to do. Most like it’s right there in front of you, once you open the refrigerator.
Most likely you rearrange your environment to have easy access to that drink.
Have you ever notice that in school, or college or at work, they put vending machine right there were there is a lot of traffic and easy to access.
Do you have an aha moment yet?
If you want to change a habit, like a habit that would you make you do what you know you should be doing.
You need to change or rearrange your environment to make it easy for you to do.
For example, if you would like to be in fit shape and go to the gym, the first thing you need to do is create the habit.
If you just go to the gym and start doing difficult exercises most likely you will fail because the odds are against you.
In order to create the habit, you ought to make it as easy and as pleasurable as possible. Like maybe do one push up once you wake up every day. Make it super easy.
As time passes and you body strength builds up, you might increase the number of push up and you might increase the exercise type if you want.
Remember, you might get to live 120 years or more.
So if you were just to do one push up every day , in one year that would be about 365 push ups. Therefore, one year from now your body would be better off if you do the push up everyday than if you do not do the push ups at all.
This could apply to anything.
If you were to drink only one grass of water everyday. One year from now that would be around 365 glasses of water. You body would be better off if you drink 365 glass of water in a year than if you did not drink that water.
The best part is that this mini habits compound and add up. Just start with super easy to do small habits.
This bring us to Rewards.
Reward
You need to reward yourself each time you do something beneficial. If you do, you body would associate that beneficial activities with something that is super pleasurable. And most likely body would like you to do it again.
Let’s use this post for example
I love video games.
Whether video games are beneficial or not is irrelevant at this point. Some people might find that video games are useless other people might find that video games are beneficial.
The point is that I love video games so much that I use them to my advantage.
Yesterday, I got this video game that I being waiting to play, During the day I could not play it because I have to work. Yes fellas, I do have a day job too. oddly enough unlike the general consensus, I kind of enjoy my day job. It helps pay the bills, so I am glad and grateful I have it.
Night comes and I had others things to do and take care off, so I still could not play the game even though I really wanted to play it.
Then bed time comes.
Super crappy.
I still have not being able to play the game. So now I have to make a choice, to go and play the game and stay awake longer or go to bed to rest and recover my energy.
Thankfully, I chose to go to bed and rest. I probably dreamed about the game.
This bring us to today and this post.
Now, I am salivating for the game as a hungry dog salivate when it sees it’s owner bring the meat.
But,
Wisdom prevail.
Do you remember, what I say about time, energy, easy to do and reward.
About time, I might died tomorrow or I my get to live to 120 years or more, So there is no rush, let’s enjoy the journey. And do mini habits that are beneficial, in the long run they will compound which in turn would make my life experiences more enjoyable.
It might also make the life experience of my love ones and audience better. Because the better I get, the more value and resources I can provide and share.
About energy, I am well rested, and ready to go and continue. This post you are reading was one of the first thing I started doing once I wake up.
I have not eating yet. I am not hungry though, my body have gotten use to not eat anything until I finish writing. Also, I have not play the video game yet, even though I really want to. A part of me just know and do what needs to be done at this point.
I have being writing a least one post or more every day for months. At this point this has become definitely a habit.
But first, I made a conscious choice to do it when I have the most energy because I knew that my energy will eventually run out
About easy to do,
Believe it or not, months ago, I could not write more than a few words or sentences. My mind was blank. I really didn’t know what to do or write about. And worse of all , my writing skills were way below average.
How much below average?
In a rating between 1-10, I probably was zero point something or 1. It was like really bad.
But writing every day have help me learn new words. It has help me expand my English vocabulary, That’s right fellas, you’ll be surprise how many time I have to look for the definition of a word.
I am still leaning and improving everyday. I still have a lot to learn. It actually appears that the more I learn the more I know that I don’t know what I don’t know.
I think, If I remember correctly, I started writing every day since august 2021. I think it was august 12. So it’s being 5-6 months of writing every day.
I started writing something every day, little by little every day.
Now, I am to a point that I have so much that I want to share with the world. It’s like no matter where I am, I am doing something and suddenly an idea comes up in my mind and I have to write it down and put it in a place with my other ideas so I can later on, write something about it.
Or learn more and then write something about it.
This post for example, I was trying to keep short. What can I say, I had the video game in mind.
Yet, some how I really got into it. And interesting enough, I kind of forgot the video game. I guess you can call it getting really focus on doing something. And here we are a few hour later.
This bring us to Rewards, and I really mean it this time.
This post will help some of you with your own journey. Each of us is ought to follow our own journey. I use the word ought instead of should because I kind of got a reminder of the word should vs ought around two days ago.
Should is like telling people what to do, and no one should be telling you what to do , since this is your life, your journey. Only you can tell you what to do to yourself.
Ought, is more like probable. Even though ought intent to indicate that you should be doing something, it give you room to decide not to do it, because in the end it’s your choice.
continuing with rewards
Is possible that this post will make me money. Just type ways to monetize a blog and you’ll find a few ways.
Other rewards
Once I finish with this post and proof read the post, I’ll get to eat something. Yes fellas, you can use food as a way to reward your body for doing something that you know you should be doing.
Food is a powerful thing, Just ask any of the companies that keep putting sugar on the food.
Another super reward is that I finally get to play the game that I being wanting to play. Once again you can use something you like as a reward for doing something that you know you should be doing.
And the best part of it, It’s guilt free.
You see, the reason why you might be asking how to do what you need to do is because you doing something that is bringing you pleasure but it may not be beneficial.
And later on you feel guilty because you knew that should be be doing something beneficial instead.
But by rewarding yourself, this solve the guilt problem.
By doing the beneficial thing early. When you wake up, do the thing early and just get it over with. You feel proud that you doing something that might benefits others and you. And you might really start to like it like do now.
You also do not feel the guilt of doing that hobby that you really like, in my case playing video games. Because you know that you already did something beneficial for the day.
It’s being fun. Now, I am going to eat and then play my video game. I hope this post is helpful to someone, and I hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I enjoy writing it.
That’s it.
Take a calculated risk.
Now, start and adjust as you go.
