For this post, I am going to pretend I don’t have any readers, and that I’m writing an appropriate message to myself. I will see if this changes my writing in some way.
A lot of what I write is about short-term vs. long-term decisions. Short-term decisions are labeled “bad”, and long-term decisions are labeled “good”. Short-term decisions all the instant gratification ones, and long-term decisions are the delayed gratification ones.
How is long-termness maintained?
I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky. I just thought I’d put those lyrics in there.
Back to the topic, it is tough to keep doing things that are long-term actions. The candy isn’t there. The reward is missing when the reward comes in 2 years. Short-term partial rewards can come along the way, but the big stuff is a long time away. This is what makes it hard. This “hard” means going without reward. We can do something like reward ourselves at steps along the way, but that takes someone with discipline and an imagination. For others, this won’t work.
I know what hard is. When someone forgoes the insta-reward, that is hard. The mind there thinks “I did X, but I didn’t get Y yet, so this is tough.”
Hard is doing more today than yesterday. That takes changing of routine, which is a stretch. Routine is where we are calm, and an exit from that routine takes energy.
Why is there so much material out there for fat people? It is hard for a fat person to lose weight. The hard parts include feeling hungry and not eating, having little support from other folks(2/3 of adults in the US are overweight or obese, same with Germany), and exercising where exercise wasn’t done before. This involves switching to long-term actions. Eating a good food now covers up negative feelings for another 2 hours. Not eating that good food means there is nothing to cover up the negative feelings until the fat starts to diminish.
Fat people won’t find any real support in most outlets. Fast food wants their consumerism, and health care wants their medical costs. Some fitness folks will help, though. This is a sign that taking the long-term approach to something requires finding people who are suitable for help, which is a very slim portion of the population. The internet helps for this.
Short-term versus long-term is present for books as well. Very few people get their items in order enough to do the long-term action of writing a book. This is why we have so many people, and so few books and eBooks in comparison. There are more than enough of them, but proportionately, the majority haven’t come close to writing more than 50 pages on something or about something. Authors like this because it keeps competition lighter.
One thing about short and long-term actions is that they build upon themselves. When you do one short-term action, you are more likely to do another, and the same is true with long-term stuff. When I do one long-term thing, I think to myself that I already have one done, so I can double that with another one. You start to feel like you are flying ahead of the competition. When doing a short-term action to cover up negative feelings, another one is required every 30 minutes or hour or 2 hours.
Society values long-term action makers very highly. You can almost directly do a long-term action, even if it is not relevant to others, and they will take notice. It says a lot when you spend 2 hours on something, as opposed to 10 minutes on it.
This was really easy to write because I pretended I had no readers. I am pretty sure that was the main reason it was easy to write. I might use that concept again.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome post Armen, certainly beneficial for me! Have a nice day
Hi Oscar.
Thanks for that. I like what I provide to be beneficial sometimes. I like to see you continue freestyling.
really liked this won. a lot.
i guess for me; i’ve gotten so much done in the past and barreled through some really tough challenges that i know that as long as i’m doing what i love and being real, that no matter what happens, i’ll make it happen in the end.
beyond that: baby steps
haha
really cool
alex – unleash reality
Hey Alex.
This is true about barreling through hard stuff, as long as you enjoy doing it and it matches your being. It’s amazing what we do sometimes when we are enjoying ourselves, which some others might see as something very difficult to perform. We have to recognize these things.
Cool point.
YES. YES. YES.
But one thing (I always seem to do this to your posts): Short term actions can be fine, depending on your motivation for doing them. On the other hand, long-term actions can be destructive. If you’re trying to fill a void in yourself by doing short term or long term tasks, you’re never going to fill that void, since you need to be fulfilled within yourself, without ANY kind of efforts at all (I’ll eventually discuss this at length in my blog, but I suppose that’s one of the traits of the Inner champion).
The bottom line is, do whatever you feel like doing as an outlet for your expression, whether it’s long term or short term. However, long-term actions DO usually catalyze progress.
Another point I’d like to bring up is this: what about short actions that are part of a larger, long-term plan? Say I meditate for 20 minutes per day, every day. Is that short-term or long term?
It’s both, since I do it for the good feelings it brings me within those 20 minutes AS WELL as the numerous benefits it gives me after the experience, and I do it every day. THAT is what we’re aiming for here.
Nice post!
Hey Brett.
This is a good point about filling a void. They are impossible to fill with the things that are not meant to fill them. Doing short or long-term actions, as you said, won’t solve the issue.
Good call on doing whatever feels like the proper outlet for our expression. It is only us who sees each specific outlet we have.
I count short-term actions that are part of a long-term plan as long-term actions. I call short-terms actions the ones that don’t fit into any long-term plans.
Valid points here. Thanks for that message.
One of the things that my dad taught me is when you’re done accomplishing anything, always look back and appreciate what you’ve done. I know when I try to do either finish short or long term goals, I try to be grateful.
Lately I’ve been trying to break down long term goals into a bunch of short term goals and have been having really happy results with them!
Hi Rocky.
I think he was right there. If we see what we did, we at least get a semblance of what we are capable of. It also reminds us of good times, or good things we did, in case we forgot. When at a down time, it is good to remember an up time, to know that is it able to be achieved again.
Cool deal on breaking apart long-term goals into small ones. Few people actually do, which is what makes many long-term items look like high walls to climb.
Hey Armen,
I think it’s important to find ways to keep yourself motivated to do something, other then the long term gain. Because long term gains are perceived by our minds as being so distant and uncertain, it’s hard for us to stay motivated for them. But if for example, you actually enjoy the process of getting there, and each step in itself is fun, it’s much easier to remain motivated. This is harder than in sounds to do, but I think it’s a good strategy.
Eduard
Twitter: eduardezeanu
Hey Eduard.
Long-term gains sure do seem distant. if we don’t remind ourselves of the big picture goal, we give up real quickly. The brain has no relevant reason to pursue long-term goals without seeing the rewards at the end. Finding those things that keep us motivated is easy, and then making use of them is what is required to get substantial progress done.
Thanks for this.
Armen,
I think you a bring up a great point, actually kind of tied to my post today. There’s a side of success that we don’t see and that’s the investment of time and effort it to took to get there. People forget that many people started out just where we are today before they eventually become known authors.
Hi Srinivas.
I read that post you were referring to there and there sure is some connection. There is a lot that is hidden behind the term “success”. We don’t see much of it, and we don’t see some of the relevant parts until we try. Things are always different than we expect. That is true about us and the relation to known authors. Cool connection there.
We could be called authors-in-the-making for now.
Hi Armen,
Great article! Most of us are caught up in making decisions that give us instant gratification. However it is the people who can look at the big picture and think about the long term results that are going to make the right decisions in waiting for the big haul.
Cheers,
Vincent
Hi Vincent.
I sure know about that regarding being caught up with instant gratification items. it is sort of like being stuck in room #1, when room #2 and room #3 are just waiting for motivated folks to travel through. Getting out of room #1 is hard when stuck in a cycle, but easy when the future is seen, like you mentioned there.
My feeling on this is not all short term efforts are bad, it is however impotent that the tie in to the long term efforts. Every long term goal we have wether we achive it or not is made up of the time it takes to do that thing. This time is filled with short term effort and if we automatically think of these actions as bad we may miss some opportunity to accomplish the task we have set for our self. Lets say you have the long term goal of finishing school. going to class is a short term effort with it’s own reward and if you disregard that effort you will never reach your goal.
Hi Quinn.
This is true about the ones that connect to long-term items being worthwhile.
Valid point there about academic pursuits, and disregarding steps along the way is a quick route to cancellation of the larger goal. The small parts have to be there. Long-term goals of others that we don’t see materialize are often cut off by one or two small parts that were left undone, which then prevented achievement.
Good post, but I like how you emphasized how short-term and long-term actions are not necessarily mutually exclusive. We can get immediate gratification for not eating that last piece of cake, and we can build upon these short-term actions to make a long-term change.
Hi Steven.
They sure aren’t at times. Pieces of cake are tough to avoid eating, but eating one today, and saving the other for tomorrow will give us more value than eating both right away.
Excellent idea on how you wrote the post. I’m going to try a “no-audience” point of view for my next post. Rather than tailor my post I’ll write straight from the heart, which is what successful blogging is all about.
Hi Ryan.
It sure worked well for me. I don’t think any of us would have trouble writing informational material down in a journal, so this would work that way. It does take some control to imagine that it isn’t going to be read, but still is to be up to par, and provide relevance.
I will likely do it again. Thanks for your input there.