How to trick your brain to do hard things
Strategies like evaluating the consequences of inaction, breaking tasks into smaller goals, and consistent practice can train the brain to manage challenging tasks more effectively.
Assess Cost of Inaction
We all have those days. Days that we make up every excuse in the book to not check off the last items on our to-do list. To get through these times, we have to train our brain to push through the excuses. A well-known tip to do this starts with the cost of inaction. The cost of inaction is the cost of not doing what we were are supposed to do?
Most people are motivated more by loss than by reward. For example, the thought of losing everything you own is a far greater fear than having something to gain. Think about what you could lose by not pushing through and accomplishing the tasks on your list and surprise yourself with how your brain reacts to these thoughts!
Visualize The Smaller Goals
Performing difficult tasks in business and your personal life is a skill that everyone should possess. We need to find a strategy to do hard things when we don’t feel motivated to. We can train our brain to stay focused by practicing.
Focus can be hard to accomplish when you’re faced with a task that seems difficult or ‘too big’ to accomplish. By breaking down large tasks into smaller tasks we can train our brain to be more focused and be able to take on hard things.
Allot Time for Practice
Training your brain to do the hard things comes with a lot of practice.
Set a timer, from anywhere between 20-40 minutes. during this time all you do is the task at hand. It Doesn’t matter if you’re good at it or not, you just have to do whatever needs to be done for that allotted time. Once the timer goes off, you take a break or move onto something else.
The trick to this is coming back the next day and set another timer for the exact amount of time. You keep doing this and before you know it, the hard thing may not be so hard anymore
Take A Leap of Faith
Sometimes you just have to go for it. Even if it seems hard, don’t dwell too much and keep going. You might become successful and years later reap the rewards of it.
Do The Hard Thing
It will be a challenge, but once you are successfully on the other side you will feel alive. There are no shortcuts. The only way to train your brain to do hard things is to do hard things.
Step Outside Your Comfort Zone
Do things that allow you to step outside of your comfort zone.
The more you stretch yourself to overcome the fear of new situations, the less fear you will feel every time another obstacle comes your way.
The more you exercise your brain and open it up to as many different challenges as possible, the stronger it gets.