Recently I spoke with a group about meditation.
We talked about the reasons behind creating a daily practice and the importance of designing a habit around this.
Meditation, like mobility work or writing in a journal, has some element of reward at the beginning, but relative to the effort it takes at first, this is effectively a negative return.
You try to sit there, there are millions of thoughts, you get frustrated. Maybe you feel a little calmer at the end? Anyway, you get up, aching and sore in the legs and ankles and try to pat yourself on the back.
Even though, you feel it was close to being a waste of time.
At the start, this is how a lot of these long term games work.
If we look at it from a logicians mind (which, is not usually the most helpful thing to do), we have this upfront period of negative returns: a lot of time invested, effort, pain, frustration, with very little return.
This is where we need the extrinsic reward system.
Over a period though, we have an inflection point. Not just within a session, but overall. Maybe we respond to a difficult situation more easily. Maybe we feel a little lighter. There is something there where we go “ahhh… here it is.”
From this point, things get easier. We are driven by within. We might still have an extrinsic reward system working, but we are benefiting from intrinsic rewards now. It feels good.
On paper, we are free and the habit will continue*.
The key here, is identifying which habits or practices are highly likely to have a strong positive impact down the line. This might be a trade – 10, 20, 30, 100 days of “effort” to create the habit, to experience the “inflection point,” before you intimately feel the long term upside.
Many people give up before the inflection point, which is why the reward system and accountability are key.
*We are still likely susceptible to whatever previous habit was running in that same place/time prior to the new one. We need to remain watchful.
