r/GetMotivated • u/Brilliant-Purple-591 • Jul 26 '24
STORY [story] An unexpected lesson from my mentor...
Let me tell you about my mentor, the guy who transformed how I tackle procrastination. This dude was a legend – he didn’t just preach, he lived it.
So one day he shared his own story. He said, “I used to delay reading books for hours. Even though the books were super interesting, I’d keep putting it off until the guilt kicked in. I could have let this go on until I never touched the book again.”
“But no,” he continued, “I decided to outsmart my brain. You know how we’re wired to crave dopamine, right? If I only picked up the book when I felt guilty, it was never going to become a habit. It was just hate-fueled.”
“So, I flipped the script. I took the book and a timer. I told myself, ‘You can only read for 20 minutes.’ And then, right when I hit an interesting part, I’d stop. Every screenwriter uses this trick on us – they always cut off the episode when it’s most gripping.”
He smirked, “Why shouldn’t I use it on myself? Now, I crave those damn books because I always stop at the best part. Try it. Trick your brain. It’s a game, and you can win it.”
And that’s how he taught us to fight procrastination – with cunning, a bit of mischief, and a whole lot of grit.
Hope this story inspired you to take back control!
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u/Zeroink16 Jul 26 '24
But how this will be helpful for other than reading books?
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u/EntshuldigungOK Jul 26 '24
You don't wanna call her?
Call her, and no matter what, hang up after 3 minutes.
You both will want to talk much more all the time.
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u/Zeroink16 Jul 26 '24
Bro give me better example no one is waiting for my call, even if i call somebody no one is going to answer my call.
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u/EntshuldigungOK Jul 26 '24
You don't like working?
Go to work and no matter what, leave after an hour.
You will want to work all the time!
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u/Colonelfudgenustard Jul 26 '24
Call her and breathe heavily into the phone. When she says, "Who the hell is this?" that's when you hang up.
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u/Powerful-Sorbet-551 Jul 26 '24
This one might actually work, from experience
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u/EntshuldigungOK Jul 26 '24
So what happened actually?
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u/Powerful-Sorbet-551 Jul 26 '24
There’s a girl I am talking to, and I will always speak to her briefly then hang up, then she’ll always start feining for me when I hang up. Then she will call me back and we will speak for hours.
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u/Brilliant-Purple-591 Jul 26 '24
I used this technque for my math A-levels. I fcuking hate math. After just 3 days I felt a genuine feeling of joy, just thinking about doing some calculations about how long it takes to mars if I ride a lightbeam.
Think the lesson was figuring out how our brain works and applying the hacks mercilessly.
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u/KB-say Jul 26 '24
I always do the task I least want to do 1st. If not, other tasks expand & I’ll never get it done (or multiple others, for that matter.)
Not a new concept like the 1 you shared here but it works for me. I may need to try this too, though!
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u/Brilliant-Purple-591 Jul 26 '24
Super effective! Brian Tracy wrote a great book about it. Eat that frog - have you read it?
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Jul 27 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Brilliant-Purple-591 Jul 27 '24
There are three pillars of making chores exciting. I invented them for myself, so there's a chance that you remain unaffected haha. Would you like to read about it?
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u/Brilliant-Purple-591 Jul 26 '24 edited Jul 26 '24
Suprise challenge:
Now it’s time for action. Since in this post we lay the foundation for success, you will start executing something that is meanigful to you. Anything that is in your mind, that you’d like to get done will be tackled today.
But here’s the trick: You are not allowed to do it for more than 2 minutes. You’ve read correctly. Set a timer for two minutes and do what you have to do. After 2 minutes you stop immediately. Next time you do the same again. Can you spare 2 minutes? I bet you can. Go for it, champ.
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u/xiledone Jul 26 '24
Oh to live in a world where all your responsibilities can be done in short two minute segments with breaks inbetween.
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u/Brilliant-Purple-591 Jul 26 '24
If you enjoyed this story, I Invite you to join our tribe to outplay procrastination and take back control of your life. the sub is called Tribevo. it's very new. see you there!
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u/Forever__Young Jul 26 '24
Can't believe folk in the real world live these lives where they've got mentors who expound words of wisdom to them whilst musing and smirking as the start a sentence.