Pleasure vs. Pain

When I listen to a speaker, even if I get just one or two things from them, it’s a success. I don’t expect you to do everything I say, just take the things that work for you. Take a few nuggets and apply them to your life and you’ll start seeing dramatic results.

Now the name of this article is Pleasure vs. Pain. If you think about it, there are really only two reasons why we do anything, either it is pleasurable or it is painful.

If things cause pleasure, that’s what we tend to move toward. If it causes pain, we move away from it. Think about the things you do throughout the day. Let’s say you’re on a diet. You go over someone’s house and they decide to serve cake. You know you’re on a diet but wow, that cake sure does look good. So even though you know it’ll be painful in the long run, it would be more pleasurable at that moment. So what happens, you have the piece of cake. Get the picture?

The same goes for smoking for instance. You know you shouldn’t do it, you know it’s
bad for your health, you know you keep trying to quit or cut back. But when you light up, the pleasure overrides the pain at that moment.

There are three behaviors you can take control of right now: movement, focus and words.

Let’s talk about movement. How are you sitting right now? Are you slouched over? Do
you mope around? You control your movement. If you lose a game and hang your head,
how do you feel? If you’re sitting in your chair with your shoulders slouched forward, how do you feel?

Now let’s look at it the other way. I want you to sit straight up right now. Pick your head up and put your shoulders back. Seriously, do it right now, this is an
interactive article. Sit straight up, pick your head up and put your shoulders back. Now, how do you feel? I’m sure a lot different than you did 10 seconds ago.

Watch your movements throughout the day and control them.

The next behavior is focus. What do you think about most? Is it positive or negative?

Are you thinking about your problems or the solutions? Are you thinking about your
goals or all the tasks you need to do?

What you focus on is what you get. Only you can control what you think about. Be
positive oriented. Be solution oriented. Be goal oriented and that will completely change your outlook with everything.

The third behavior is words. It really makes me laugh sometimes the way people talk. It’s just one negative comment after another. Some people even get into a contest at how bad they have it. They’ll say ‘Oh, that’s not bad, I’ll tell you how bad I have it. Like it’s a contest who has the worst life.

Let me tell you, if all you’re talking about is negativity and how bad everything is and complaining and moaning about things, what in the world do you expect?

Control your words and take yourself out of situations where that’s all you’re hearing. Trust me, it’s not going to get you anywhere you want to be. If you’re overweight and all you say is ‘I’m fat, my thighs are too big, I’m never going to lose my stomach, I give up’, then how do you expect to make a change?