“The cause of most of man’s unhappiness is sacrificing what he wants most for what he wants now.” – Gordon B. Hinckley
Have you ever enjoyed a weekend with a loved one cuddling and watching t.v? How about even a weekend glued to your video game console and a few pints of ice-cream? When you engage in those types of activities, you get into what’s called; “pleasure mode”. When you’re in pleasure momentum, it’s a bit hard to get back into “high-performance spartan mode”.
The primary difference between “pleasure mode” and “high-performance spartan mode” is being focused on your purpose.
When you’re indulging yourself in junk food and entertainment for a weekend, it’s hard to be focused on your purpose. When you’re cuddling for 3 hours straight, it’s hard to be focused on your purpose. Whenever you indulge yourself in activities for the sake of pleasure, for a long period of time, you slowly lose touch with your purpose.
Basically, pleasurable activities (such as the ones mentioned above) gain momentum after a while. Then when you know you’ve indulged enough, and you try to go to the gym, you find yourself thinking “just one more Youtube video” or “just one more pack of chips” or “I’ll go tomorrow”. You are now in pleasure mode and you’ve lost touch with your purpose. Instead of being focused on the reward of your long-term goals, you are now focused on the reward of short-term pleasures or instant gratification.
At this point, what you need is an effective “transition-ritual” to go from “pleasure mode” into “high-performance spartan mode”.
“Transition ritual” – an activity that refocuses you on your purpose in life and reconnects you to your drive to excel and take action.
Transition ritual activities: motivational videos, going to the gym, reading/writing in your journal, talking to a mentor, reading an inspiring book, etc. (basically anything that refocuses you on your mission)
The primary thing to remember from this post is this: Whatever activity you do, no matter what it is will start to build momentum, if you’re not careful it will be hard to do something else unless you do a transition ritual.
Some people need a more lengthy/intense transition ritual than others. For some, simply taking 5 minutes to breathe and think about their goals, transitions them out of pleasure mode and back into high-performance mode. For others, an evening of silence and meditation might do the trick. In some situations, you might need a day or two of solitude to really re-center/refocus yourself. Usually, you’ll need a lengthy/intense transition ritual if you’ve spent a lot of time indulging yourself like during a long weekend or vacation.
In summary, be careful how long you indulge yourself for. And if you do indulge yourself a bit much during a weekend (as you should sometimes) know that you will be in pleasure mode and getting back into high-performance mode will be more uncomfortable than usual. You must do some sort of transition ritual; go to the gym, read an inspiring book for an hour, talk to someone about your goals for the week,etc.. You need to reground yourself in your vision and purpose. Otherwise, the momentum from the pleasurable activities will drive you to indulge further.
Spartan Up,
Maximillian Giamarco
P.s. Would like to make progress on your journey to self-mastery? Check out the Spartan Ownership shop here for badass products and training courses that will accelerate your growth. Also, if you would like more personalized help, book a coaching session with me here.
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