Look into the Future – Turning Instant Gratification Around

Instant gratification – where we want something and we want it now.

We’re hungry? – We don’t need to spend an hour cooking a meal, or even go through the Drive Thru at McDonalds to get food, we have food delivery services such as Uber Eats that can just have food delivered to our door.

We’re bored and we want to watch a TV show or movie? – Why wait until the show starts on cable, or even drive to the movies when we can just watch anything at anytime through Netflix or YouTube?

We want to buy something? – Why do we need to go to an actual store when we can just go online, put something in the cart, and get it delivered without us actually leaving the house.

All this instant gratification is everywhere. It’s even on our own phones.

Social media is the biggest example.

Making phone calls and sending messages is another big example.

Instant gratification is not always a bad thing though.

We want to make our life easy for ourselves and want to make it as convenient as possible.

Like imagine back then, you had to actually go to a payphone down the street to call someone, and now we just have it in our pocket and we don’t even want to call people anymore.

Before, to send someone something, actual mail needed to be sent, now we just have email.

We also have technology and the internet that has made life easier especially in COVID when everything was moved online, we saved time with commuting somewhere because all we had to do was get in online and we’ve already arrived at the “meeting”.

We have the instant ability to do anything, and that is a good thing.

But here is where instant gratification brings us down:

It’s when we would rather eat a whole bag of chips because it tastes better than eating a healthier snack.

It’s when we would rather binge-watch a TV show because it sounds more relaxing than doing an important work project.

It’s when we would rather skip the gym because the effort is too much to go there.

AND what brings us down further is that we don’t take into consideration the long-term consequences of doing those actions.

We don’t think about what would happen when we repeatedly do it.

A bag of chips taste better than a piece of fruit, so we don’t think about how eating a whole bag of chips repeatedly would cause us to gain weight.

Watching a TV show sounds better than working on a required project with a deadline, so we don’t really think about how procrastinating an important project repeatedly could eventually get us fired.

Skipping the gym sounds better than actually going, so we don’t really think about:

1. The fact that we’re wasting money because we’re not actually going to the gym, and
2. The fact that we are not actually going to get more fit.

I mean, I don’t really blame anyone. Eating chips sounds better than a fruit salad. Binge-watching feels better than doing a project after a long day of work. And going to the gym is sometimes a hassle, especially since there’s still that commuting part to go there.

Turning Instant Gratification Around

We can turn this all around and look at instant gratification differently.

We can do this by actually keeping in mind the long-term consequences of any of our habits or actions – pretty much “looking into the future“.

If eating a whole bag of chips instead of eating some fruits caused us to immediately gain weight, then we would probably be more conscious of eating that whole bag of chips.

If binge-watching a TV show instead of working on that important project cause us to immediately get fired, then we would probably second guess binge-watching shows.

If getting into the sun without proper sun protection would cause us to immediately get skin cancer, then we would probably double check to make sure that we have sun protection before we leave the house.

That is the initial issue with instant gratification – we don’t see those long-term consequences, because they don’t show those negative effects in the moment.

One day of doing any of those habits won’t make us instantly gain weight, get fired, or get skin cancer, but the compound effect has already been activated. Doing those actions repeatedly over a long period of time would eventually turn those into reality.

So if we looked into the future instead of thinking of that one-time feeling in the moment, it would allow us to be more conscious of our habits, and being aware of the long-term consequences of those.

“Look into the Future” to Break Bad Habits

Ultimately, turning instant gratification around really just involves knowing the long-term consequences, and asking ourselves the right questions to ensure that we are on the right track.

For instance, treating ourselves for some retail therapy for one day isn’t going to immediately make us broke. Ending up broke is the long-term consequence, is that a long-term consequence that we want to have?

So whenever we feel like impulsively buying something, we ask ourselves – is this going to be a negative effect in the long-run if I keep doing this?

It’s the same with impulsively snacking, what are the long-term consequences? It could be gained weight or skin breakouts. Do we want those long-term consequences?

Then we proceed with asking ourselves the questions each time we feel like impulsively snacking – is doing this going to give me the long-term consequences that I want?

“Looking into the Future” for Building Good Habits

We can also turn around instant gratification for building good habits.

There may have been times when we had tried to start new habits but let go of them after a while because they were a hassle to keep up with them.

This is because the result that we want doesn’t happen immediately.

Just like how doing a bad habit one day isn’t going to be detrimental right away, doing a good habit one day isn’t going to immediately give us the results.

But if we also “look into the future” the consequences of our good habits, it may help us to keep on going whenever we feel discouraged that we’re not seeing any results.

For example, having one day where we just eat healthy food isn’t going to immediately give us a body transformation. BUT we can turn instant gratification around to push through that. Just like with the bad habits, we think about the long-term result of continuing that pattern. If it’s a long-term result that we want, then we continue on with that happen.

We then can proceed with asking ourselves regular questions such as – is eating this going to give me the body that I want?

It’s the same with working on a side hustle. One day of hard work isn’t going to give us the results that we desire. We can turn instant gratification around by thinking of the long-term consequence if we keep doing the work repeatedly. Whenever we feel like procrastinating, we may ask ourselves this question – is doing this going to bring me closer to my goals?

Pretty much, as you can see, it’s all about two things:

1. Knowing the Long-Term Consequence.
2. Asking the right questions

We’re not going to immediately see everything long-term in that very moment. But WE can be aware of it.

We can be conscious of our habits to see whether it is going to bring us up or bring us down in the long-term.

We “look into the future” and determine whether that long-term consequence is something that we want.

So we don’t have to make instant gratification a bad thing all the time – all we have to do is turn it around.

Book(s) this post was inspired by:

(not sponsored in any way!)

• The Compound Effect – Darren Hardy
• Atomic Habits – James Clear

Disclaimer: If you think that any of what I had written was good, the credit actually belongs to the one whose book was the inspiration for this post. If there’s anything on here that you think is quite stupid, that’s 100% blame on me 🙂

Share This Blog Post Here:

Related Articles:

Based on the same books:

The Compound Effect – how it’s going to change the way you look at habits

Read this before you start a new habit!

Similar Articles You Might Like:

Books to Read to Help You Build & Break Habits

Train Your Mind to Find Ways… NOT excuses

---

---

CONNECT with ME!! 🗯

Instagram:

@laurenlbarri (blog Instagram)

---

---