How can I stop craving instant gratification?
I don't even get any pleasure from instant gratification anymore. Video games and internet has become boring to me yet I will still procrastinate working by aimlessly browsing imageboards. I crave meaningful work but the road towards getting the skills to do meaningful work first is so long and with no rewards until a lot of effort and time has been spent.
Like anything, you just have to practice
how
Saw this one on ted talks
The rational decision maker is also the monkey and it has the capacity to bargain with itself. In doing so it can realise it is always the god above two pillars, and is never forced to choice either again.
I want to know more about this.
>with no rewards until a lot of effort and time has been spent.
The sense of accomplishment you get after a single day of hard work is a reward in itself. The feeling of making progress (e.g getting better at math) is very gratifying as well. You don't need to wait until you've accomplished your end goal to feel satisfaction.
Setting realistic goals is important. There was a time in which I wanted to work towards mastering several subjects/skills at once. That did not work, I burned out quickly and was left with no motivation. Now, after years of frustration, I have limited myself to three subjects and things are running more smoothly.
>The sense of accomplishment
>The feeling of making progress
I can force myself to have an extremely productive day but never have this sense of accomplishment or any kind of pleasure whatsoever
how do I solve this?
drugs
literally the worst thing you can do
which ones?
Taking drugs after doing hard effort work
Until the pleasure seeking part of your brain realizes it can just take the drugs without doing the hard work, and the rational decision making part of your brain is powerless to resist since you had no self-discipline in the first place.
all of em
Work is awful and avoiding it is rational.
wrong
I'm kind of the same way. I quit playing video games when I got into electronics. Projects with LEDs or video synthesizers give a reward of flashing colored lights when you do something like how addictive games are designed.
do the Future(TM) Authoring(TM) Program(TM). Or just keep thinking about what will happen if you don't do the things that aren't instantly gratifying and that you've been pushing off. Write about that, put up a plan that you want to follow, with just enough gratification so that you don't kill yourself.
Treat your future self as someone you care about. You wouldn't want him in a bad spot.
1. Learn everything you can about neurogenesis and testosterone (later if men)
2. Optimize both to the fullest
3. Do it for 1 year
4. Start taking ADHD medication, see which one you respond the best
5. Using the medication start learning about conscientiousness and orderliness and how to improve it, Harvard as a good guide, execute it while on medication
6. Wait 1 year You have now created the neural pathways and you can lay off the ADHD meds.
I am in the same situation as you and I'm currently doing this:
Choose whatever you wish to study, write, work upon and divide the time of work in small bits. I can't concentrate more than an average of 20 minutes. It's very hard, and unfortunately I have to force myself. Today I studied a bit in the morning and in the evening. So that's around 30-40 minutes but it beats nothing.
I learned there are no easy answers for the 'instant gratification' issue. Unfortunately you have to go boot-camp on yourself and eliminate at least some shitty distractions. I personally mix my wasting time activities with the small sessions of learning. This morning I felt so exhausted after a few minutes of writing that I wasted afterwards 2 hours playing vidya.
Read the enchiridon and practice meditation
Also, talk to yourself. This may sound crazy (it will if you do it out loud, ofc) but it really helps.
prove him wrong faggot
I dunno, my whole life revoles around avoiding unpleasent things (like being homeless, hungry or a social misfit) and gaining instant gratifiication after I made sure that those do not happen.
You can live pretty comfortable as soon as you give up on having a meaningful life.
Also your problem isn`t that you crave instant gratification, but that you give in to that desire; You rule supreme over yourself, so always be aware that you choose to give in.
Learn focus
explain... how much talking to yourself?
>prove him wrong faggot
Why the homophobia?