The Power of Instant Gratification
Growing up, I was always a little nervous about the temptation of instant gratification. When I first started to get into fitness, I figured that anything that brought quick satisfaction was a sign that I was resisting temptation and not being tough or disciplined.I didn’t understand then that while some decayed gratification is certainly a part of any successful process, it’s important to recognize that avoiding as much pleasure in life can also severely hurt your success.
Fundamentally, we human beings are emotional creatures. We can know all of the facts and scientific logic behind achieving success in life and fitness, but we ultimately strive for some emotional fulfillment, which is much more potent in the short term than the long. This means that short-term gratification can be a supremely potent motivating factor toward success, provided we can implement it productively.
Embracing habits that provide short-term and long-term satisfaction is the key to making instant gratification works for you. Such behaviors can seem like you’re hunting for a needle in a haystack, but they are out there.
My love of calisthenics training is a perfect example. My bodyweight strength training provides long-term health benefits consistent with exercise and physical conditioning, but I also deeply enjoy the feeling I get from the activity itself. Getting outside at the local park or experiencing the rush of a muscle pump are quick. Pleasurable benefits are experienced in each workout, so while I train for the long-term benefits of years of training, I’m also highly motivated to exercise to feel good.
Instant gratification can mean going out for fast food. It can also mean enjoying a satisfying 5-minute Ab workout. The common rhetoric in our fitness culture is that instant gratification is not to be trusted and can lead you down a dark path. This idea has merit, but it’s not instant gratification that’s to blame. Like many things in life, short-term pleasures are not good or bad. They are simply potent motivators. It’s a strong influence we can either learn to use for our benefit or perpetually fight against.
Looking back on the early years of my training career, I know I was fighting against myself as I struggled to wrangle my desire for short-term enjoyment. Now, I know that most of this struggle was unnecessary and cost me energy and effort with very little payoff. Using instant gratification as a tool has helped me flip the script to get more benefits from the habits I embrace for short- and long-term success.