A recent article in the New York Times grabbed my attention, about a study on why and how we procrastinate pleasure.
In a nutshell, researchers found that humans are hard-wired to put off until later many things that we find pleasurable, if we’re not given an immediate deadline.
In a nutshell, researchers found that humans are hard-wired to put off until later many things that we find pleasurable, if we’re not given an immediate deadline.
The primary reason is a certain cognitive dissonance—evidently, we seem to commonly believe that there’s no time for these things right now, but later there will be.
The idea of carpe diem—seize the day—turns out to be something we need to be reminded of.
Gift certificate and airline frequent flier miles programs depend on this habit: They know that people are likely to put off cashing in their rewards, and the more time they have, the more likely they are to never redeem them.
It’s a strange kind of discovery. We tend to think of people as reasonably rational, self-interested beings. Sure we might put off something that’s overly dull or painful, but you’d think that if we had something free or fun owed to us, we’d take advantage of it post haste.
But we don’t.
POSTPONING PLEASURE
The article was written during the holidays and so it’s heavily focused on material examples, like gift certificates. But the findings provide a lot of insight for other areas of our lives.
There are certainly any number of good reasons to not gain right now. Maybe you really can’t afford the extra food or larger wardrobe. Maybe you have a career that depends on you staying thin. Maybe you have the fastest freakin’ metabolism ever.
And there’s plenty of reasons not to travel somewhere to meet up, face-to-face with that longtime friend from the community. Maybe money is tight. Maybe your car needs work. Maybe you kinda-sorta stretched the truth and told him you were 100 pounds bigger—and sent morphed photos.
But there is a fine line between prudence and your brain tricking you into good old fashioned procrastination.
As the article says: “We're trying to do a cost-benefit analysis of the time lost versus the pleasure or money to be gained, but we're not accurate in our estimates of ‘resource slack’… When people were asked to anticipate how much extra money and time they would have in the future, they realistically assumed that money would be tight, but they expected free time to magically materialize.”
If this research can teach us anything, it’s that you can always justify having more time or energy or freedom later. But when later comes, your brain is capable of re-setting to a new future goal that will never be, without you even being conscious of it.
So “I’ll wait til my late 20s to gain,” becomes “my 30s will be better,” and ultimately “I should really wait until I start receiving Medicare benefits.”
And “I’ll visit you this June,” evolves into “See ya in August,” and finishes up with “How’s your 2014 lookin?”
For some people, waiting til their 40s to gain is the right call. And some really are just too busy to make that trip now, but will be freer at a later date.
But it’s worth questioning that kind of decision and being aware of whether it’s truly a sensible call or your brain is just engaging you in an endless exercise in procrastination, because it hasn’t been given an immediate deadline to work with.
Your brain is, after all, hardwired to do just that.
AIM BIG, MISS BIG
There is a second major takeaway from the article.
“People can become overly focused on an ideal,” says the creator of the study, Dr. Suzanne Shu. “Even if they know it's unlikely, they get so focused on the perfect scenario that they block everything else. Or they anticipate that they'll kick themselves later if they take second-best option and then see the best one is still available. But they don't realize that regret can go the other way. They'll end up with something worse and regret not taking the second-best one.”
The implications for our ilk is clear: If you hold out for really big, you might miss out on getting even a little bit bigger.
Plenty of guys have a big goal (sometimes upward of 350 or 400), but don’t want to start gaining just yet, because they aren’t ready to realize that goal so soon. According to Dr. Shu (well not literally, cause obviously she doesn’t know about us and our twisted ways, but if she did, I’m sure she’d agree), by putting off a smaller goal—say 200 or 250—those guys risk never getting big at all.
Oftentimes, our brain needs near-term deadlines in order to prioritize something. By setting smaller intermediate goals, you have a better shot at getting at least a little bigger than if you keep waiting for the right moment to go straight for 400 (or whatever your ultimate goal is).
Evidently, a little compromise in the short-term can be a good thing. Holding out for the ideal in the long-term could leave you with nothing.
So what are you waiting for? Carpe crustum: Seize the cake.
The idea of carpe diem—seize the day—turns out to be something we need to be reminded of.
Gift certificate and airline frequent flier miles programs depend on this habit: They know that people are likely to put off cashing in their rewards, and the more time they have, the more likely they are to never redeem them.
It’s a strange kind of discovery. We tend to think of people as reasonably rational, self-interested beings. Sure we might put off something that’s overly dull or painful, but you’d think that if we had something free or fun owed to us, we’d take advantage of it post haste.
But we don’t.
POSTPONING PLEASURE
The article was written during the holidays and so it’s heavily focused on material examples, like gift certificates. But the findings provide a lot of insight for other areas of our lives.
There are certainly any number of good reasons to not gain right now. Maybe you really can’t afford the extra food or larger wardrobe. Maybe you have a career that depends on you staying thin. Maybe you have the fastest freakin’ metabolism ever.
And there’s plenty of reasons not to travel somewhere to meet up, face-to-face with that longtime friend from the community. Maybe money is tight. Maybe your car needs work. Maybe you kinda-sorta stretched the truth and told him you were 100 pounds bigger—and sent morphed photos.
But there is a fine line between prudence and your brain tricking you into good old fashioned procrastination.
As the article says: “We're trying to do a cost-benefit analysis of the time lost versus the pleasure or money to be gained, but we're not accurate in our estimates of ‘resource slack’… When people were asked to anticipate how much extra money and time they would have in the future, they realistically assumed that money would be tight, but they expected free time to magically materialize.”
If this research can teach us anything, it’s that you can always justify having more time or energy or freedom later. But when later comes, your brain is capable of re-setting to a new future goal that will never be, without you even being conscious of it.
So “I’ll wait til my late 20s to gain,” becomes “my 30s will be better,” and ultimately “I should really wait until I start receiving Medicare benefits.”
And “I’ll visit you this June,” evolves into “See ya in August,” and finishes up with “How’s your 2014 lookin?”
For some people, waiting til their 40s to gain is the right call. And some really are just too busy to make that trip now, but will be freer at a later date.
But it’s worth questioning that kind of decision and being aware of whether it’s truly a sensible call or your brain is just engaging you in an endless exercise in procrastination, because it hasn’t been given an immediate deadline to work with.
Your brain is, after all, hardwired to do just that.
AIM BIG, MISS BIG
There is a second major takeaway from the article.
“People can become overly focused on an ideal,” says the creator of the study, Dr. Suzanne Shu. “Even if they know it's unlikely, they get so focused on the perfect scenario that they block everything else. Or they anticipate that they'll kick themselves later if they take second-best option and then see the best one is still available. But they don't realize that regret can go the other way. They'll end up with something worse and regret not taking the second-best one.”
The implications for our ilk is clear: If you hold out for really big, you might miss out on getting even a little bit bigger.
Plenty of guys have a big goal (sometimes upward of 350 or 400), but don’t want to start gaining just yet, because they aren’t ready to realize that goal so soon. According to Dr. Shu (well not literally, cause obviously she doesn’t know about us and our twisted ways, but if she did, I’m sure she’d agree), by putting off a smaller goal—say 200 or 250—those guys risk never getting big at all.
Oftentimes, our brain needs near-term deadlines in order to prioritize something. By setting smaller intermediate goals, you have a better shot at getting at least a little bigger than if you keep waiting for the right moment to go straight for 400 (or whatever your ultimate goal is).
Evidently, a little compromise in the short-term can be a good thing. Holding out for the ideal in the long-term could leave you with nothing.
So what are you waiting for? Carpe crustum: Seize the cake.
Definitely agreed!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I kick myself for not sticking with gaining back in high school beyond the basic experimentation, thinking how much closer to my goals I could be today.
I'm definitely glad I stopped waiting. If I had waited til I was established in my career or whatever, I wouldn't be the well over 400 lbs guy I am today in my later 20's
Thank you for pointing out this article and putting into words its application for us gainers and would-be gainers.
ReplyDeleteNorbert.
Where...Did you....Find....THAT PHOTO!!! I cracked up for days when the site first loaded. Its perfect! And of course as always, i gained valuable insight into myself and our community by reading your blog. I love this blog!
ReplyDelete