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Instant gratification: Good for goals, terrible with temptations

Brain Illustration

To create money freedom, you should first learn to create time for your goals. 

But what if temptations take charge of your life and you are not wise enough to transcend that evil limitation and kill your valuable time in pursuing those illusionary pleasures?

Temptations restrict you from having a routine aligned with your goals, and a lack of routine will take you on the wrong trajectory, and you will ultimately give up citing never-ending excuses. So, let’s try to understand how our instant response to temptations will impact our lives in the long run. 

Why are you tempted to do certain things?

Any temptation starts with an emotional trigger, and you need to identify what is leading to a particular temptation.

If your temptations are associated with behaviors or activities that are not associated with your goals, you should not make any excuses to justify your response to those temptations.

Once you identify the triggers, you have to work on them regularly to see at least a one percent change daily and ultimately succeed in achieving your goals. 

Remember, we have only a set amount of time:

As we are aware, we are here on this planet for a minimal period of time, and for that reason, it’s very crucial to know the core reason behind a particular temptation. So, find out what emotional trigger motivates you to respond to a particular temptation. 

Temptations happen because a need has to be met immediately, and you have two choices: to satisfy that desire or become aware of your goals and work on them. Make a choice wisely, and you will enjoy the result in the long run.

Instant gratification creates a distance between us and our goals:

Not all temptations are bad. If you are so tempted to start your day only after exercise, then it’s really a fantastic temptation. That’s, in fact, not a temptation but a conscious choice that will help you stay fit and healthy. On the other hand, if you can’t control your temptation to have sweets before breakfast daily, it will seriously impact your fitness goals. This works the same while setting financial goals as well if you can’t control your temptation to overspend on shopping. 

Why can’t we be as fast with goals as we were with temptations?

All the reasons you give to justify your temptation, use all of them to get your goals done. Just try it by yourself, and you will be amazed by the progress. Our mind has a comfort zone and loves to stay in it. But it’s the duty of our intellect to find out what is good and bad with respect to our long-term well-being. Once a trigger happens for a temptation, your mind will try to deceive you by justifying that you deserve it for all the effort you put in all the time. But will the same mind motivate you at the same pace when it comes to fulfilling your goals? Certainly, it’s not. We have to tune it in a certain way to make that happen. 



Money loves speed:

“Doing it Tomorrow will be great, but doing it right away will get money.” 

So, why shouldn’t you respond as quickly to working on your goals as you do to respond to your temptations? Everyone puts in some sort of effort. But money likes only those who are agile.

While working seriously on your goal, if you get sidetracked because of a certain trigger, your competitors will outrank you. This is how speed and money are related, so don’t let temptations disturb your momentum.

Then, what is the solution?

  1. Try to discover what it is that you need to shift in your mind every time you are tempted. This may take some time as you have to observe yourself very closely. But be determined to do it no matter what. 
  2. Try to get hooked on the end result. Before taking any action, try to visualize how it will be at the end after performing a particular action. Obviously, negative temptations will leave bitter experiences as end result. If you can clearly picture it in your mind way before that happens, you will no longer be a victim of temptations.



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