What will you do, if you’d have to choose between:

Scoring a 90-percentile vs. watching a Netflix series OR,

Living a healthy life vs. having a smoke OR,

Getting an A+ appraisal rating vs. getting into a workplace gossip?

The answers to all the above look so simple. Most of us will simply choose the first part over the second one. Life would have been so simple, if it has always given us such simple problems to solve. But the way life is, it presents us with much complex problems rather than the simple this or that situations.

To make it clearer, let me pick up the above scenarios once again.

Situation 1: Scoring a 90-percentile vs. watching a Netflix series

You will never get opportunity to choose from these two. Rather you will have to choose between studying for 3 hours vs. watching a Netflix series.

Situation 2: Living a healthy life vs. having a smoke

Real options will be Controlling the urge vs. having pleasure of a smoke

Situation 3: Getting an A+ appraisal rating vs. getting into a workplace gossip

Options possibly are submitting a regular daily or weekly report vs. getting into a workplace gossip.

Now that’s where the brain ditches us. It will look for an instant gain, short term fun and it hates pain. So between the two choices, the brain will always be tilted towards the one, which gives less pain and provides pleasure in the short term.

No wonder why lot of people miss their life and career goals. Because they often must choose between choices, which are instant gain vs. long term benefit and end up going after the instant gain.

We are rarely stupid to not understand the importance of an A+ rating over a workplace gossip, yet that is not the way life presents the choices to us. An A+ rating is a possibility that will happen in future and also uncertain; it may or may not happen. Let’s use Aubrey Daniels’ PICNIC Analysis® model to understand this.

As per the model, consequences impact our behaviour and the consequences can be either “Positive Immediate Certain”, or they can be “Negative Future Uncertain”. Our behaviours are more influenced by PIC.

Let’s take Smoking example for a better understanding. Smoking gives a kick of nicotine (Positive), it will happen as you smoke the cigarette (Immediate), it is definite (Certain).

Against that let’s measure the possible consequence of smoking, Cancer. It is a disease (Negative), it is not going to happen tomorrow or next week, it may happen at some point of time, if at all (Future), despite smoking not everybody develops cancer (Uncertain). Very clearly, your brain feels much more comfortable with lighting that cigarette than avoiding it for a long term benefit.

Here the driving forces are Certainty and Immediate result. Positive and Negative results can both have similar impact based on situation to situation. So, for the purpose of this article let me focus on these two areas.

Linking it with other two examples, watching a Netflix series gives you immediate pleasure, which is certain, while studying for those many hours may or may not lead to a 90-percentile score and that too may happen only in a distant future.

A work gossip will be fun and entertaining in the present moment and is certain to provide you that. Creating a weekly report may or may not get you an A+ appraisal rating and it may happen in future, again not immediately.

Now you know why people closer to examinations or annual appraisal time are more focused? Because the possible result is closer and not distant.

Does it mean that we are slaves to this ‘Behaviour Consequence Theory’ and will always end up choosing the wrong over right? The answer is, No. You can trick your brain in doing otherwise, provided you stay aware of the following concepts:

Bring future closer: If the distant future is not going to motivate you to take action, bring it closer. Create a desired outcome which will happen today, tomorrow or in a few days. For example,

o   Set a weekly goal of zero delay reporting and review it every Monday.

o   Reward yourself for not smoking everyday by ordering your favourite dish

o   Commit to yourself to watch one episode of that Netflix series only after studying for 3 hours

By rewarding yourself, you will allow these right behaviours to flow automatically in near future. As you can see, they are not only immediate but also certain and hence more likely to influence you.

Break larger goals into smaller goals: Setting a goal of running a full marathon may be too big to start for a novice. The sheer size of the task may pull you down. Not to forget, it is going to be uncertain and futuristic. But if you set a goal of running 2 KMs for one month and double it every month, you will actually be motivated to get up and get running. The result will be immediate for the milestone and you can be much more certain about achieving it.

Write down your purpose statement: As per Daniel Pink, one of our key motivators is our Purpose in life. An army man gives away his life on border, as his purpose is to safeguard the country, no amount of money can motivate anyone to do that. A social worker spends his life working for the underprivileged, the motivation is their purpose is to doing good for humanity. Similarly, if you create a purpose statement for yourself and keep it in front of your eyes at your home and workplace. It will definitely protect you from falling into the impulse of short-term gains and will put you back on track of your life-goals.

Daily review: Conduct a self-review every day before you go to sleep. Ask yourself, how many times during the day you were in control of yourself and did what is good for your life and career, and how many times you have lost to small pleasures. Every time you fail, your brain will register the pain (remember brain is auto tuned to avoid pain) and this pain will act as a motivator for you in the coming days to go with more important goals instead of short-term pleasures and gains.

Success is never achieved in one shot; it is achieved with the help of hundreds of small steps. At every step, you get multiple choices of moving in a particular direction. You need to manage every step to reach your goal and that’s what differentiates people, who are highly successful and people who stay average.

Everyday, every step takes me towards my goal or away from it. Life is not a long jump, it’s a rhythm of a billion steps…

Written by: Ravi Mathur

Edited by: Pragati Nagar