The Cycle Of Instant Gratification
Instant gratification is a dangerous cycle. Always seeking immediate pleasure and gratification is a recipe for disaster. Within our brain, the limbic system acts as the force behind our desire for instant gratification. It dominates our brain, literally. It's always in a state of now not later, seeking pleasure and reward.
Everything crumbles beneath you if you let it dominate: our attention spans drastically shorten, our relationships suffer, we have a lack of commitment, and we make poor choices. Ultimately, we suffer, and our lives get worse. You need to break free from its control, but it's hard. It happens automatically, so how can we fight back?
You need to train your brain to not need everything instantly. At the start, it's heavy lifting. You have to manually fight back. But over time, your brain rewires and you're golden. To get to that point, you have to not act right away. Take time to process before doing something. Distract yourself. Set goals for delayed gratification then reward yourself. Anything to break the cycle.
Because right now, instant gratification is ruining your life. You can't let life do its thing because you are always onto the next thing. Slow down. Commit to your goals. Play the long game. It may suck to hear, but great things take time. Nothing great happens instantly. You have to show up every day with no results to get the reward you want.
It's going to be hard to rewire your brain, but you have to. You have no choice or you'll never get what you want out of life. So, start the process now. It will take time to break, so be kind to yourself. Aim to break it a little bit every day, and over time, you'll be a new person. That's all it takes: small, daily, consistent effort. Then, the cycle will be broken.