A short YouTube talk by Rich Bello about 'hacking' our minds to achieve goals by leveraging pain (setting up costs such as public declarations) and pleasure (making difficult tasks enjoyable and rewarding oneself). Bello gives personal examples—committing publicly to weekly seminars, using music to make exercise enjoyable, and promising retreats as rewards for milestones.
Chapters
Is it possible that we can hack our own minds to use the power of desires to avoid pain and seek pleasure to achieve our goals? Well, I can hear your virtual answers out there all screaming, yes, right? That's correct. So let's take a look at each. How can we use pain? I call this setting yourself up for success. If you wanted to do something really bad for some time now, but just can't seem to get it done, one tactic that I like to offer up to my clients is to make a public declaration. Nothing like public humiliation for some pain. For example, if you've wanted to run a marathon but can't seem to do it, make a public declaration to everybody that you know that you'll be running in the marathon this year. What's the motivating force behind this declaration? Yes, public humiliation. If you don't do it, everybody will know you don't mean what you say. These episodes, by the way, are an example of my making a public declaration to do regular seminars. I've been doing seminars for years, but they weren't being done on a regular basis. Now I've made a public declaration that they will be done weekly. Okay, so how do we use pleasure now as a motivating force? I really like this one. Whenever I want to do something that is difficult, that I frankly don't want to do, right? I always ask, how can I enjoy the process? After I say, how can I do this right? So, for instance, I want to exercise each day. So I ask myself the question, how can I exercise each day and then add and enjoy the process? Always add this part and enjoy the process. Now, how can I do X and enjoy the process? Your brain is an amazing tool. Ask it a question, it'll give you an answer. If you don't like the answer, ask a better question. So when I asked this of myself years ago, the answer that I came up with was music. I wanted to exercise, and I said, how can I exercise? Enjoy the process. Now, I love my exercise routine, right? I love it. I crank out the music and I work out literally for hours. I love it. Now I'm literally addicted to exercise. This little hack literally changed my life. If you want to get something badly enough, agree to reward yourself for it. Reward yourself for something that will motivate you, something that you wouldn't normally do for yourself, right? For instance, if I write a chapter in my book, maybe I'll reward myself with. With going to my favorite retreat for a weekend.
