I Killed the Tomorrow Mindset by Attacking my Comfort Zone

How I created a simple plan to help me choose to do hard things over immediate gratification.

It was near the end of another day. I hadn’t gotten everything done on my to do list.  I just told myself I would work on it the next day.

This was my norm.

Putting things off until tomorrow had become a bad habit for me.

I’ll eat this pizza today and eat better tomorrow. I’ll wake up early and work hard on this tomorrow. I’ll skip the workout but hit it hard from tomorrow.

Over time, this norm greatly impacted my life.

“Comfort zones: If you like being in one too long, that becomes your norm. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.” –David Goggins

I wasn’t as fit as I used to be. This had a double impact, because as I got older, I was finding it harder to do things like I had before.

I was still mired in trying to start my own business, and there were opportunities I had missed. I had the opportunity to start writing on Medium back when it had just started growing in popularity, but because I kept putting things off, I missed the early boom and easier paydays.

All the dreams and changes I had imagined had not come true. I was stuck in my life because I kept putting things off.

I hated it.

I know that I am not alone in my situation. There are many people just like me. They choose to take the easy way, and over time, nothing changes.

This is the Present Bias at work where immediate gratification is prioritized over future benefits.

The Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex and its Link to Willpower

I first heard Dr. Huberman talk about the Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex (aMCC) of the brain in his interview with David Goggins. He says that the aMCC is bigger in people who push themselves to do things that they don’t want to do, and it is smaller in people who do not push themselves, implying that our willpower can be developed and grown by consistently pushing ourselves to do hard things.

“The neuroscience research on willpower makes clear that your Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex (aMCC) is a key hub for leaning into undesired effort. Your aMCC is activated by engaging in behaviors that you don’t want to do. Your aMCC/willpower can grow throughout the lifespan by regularly doing undesired things*, that are hard.” Dr. Huberman

After learning about this and having heard David talk about how he overcame his own struggles by learning to embrace doing hard things, I decided that I would push myself to do undesirable things to help grow my willpower.

I had written before how I had found my self-sabotaging programs linked to my childhood. Even though I had found many of them and reduced their impact, I still had a lifetime of disempowering habits that I had to overcome. By focusing on doing hard things, I knew that, over time, it would help me to get past of the habit of choosing easy over hard in the present moment, and it would lead to a better life.

My Simple Plan to Doing Undesirable Things

I wanted to work on a small list of things that would require me to push myself and grow the aMCC by doing uncomfortable things.

I did two things.

One, I decided to focus on a few tasks that I most often put off that would have benefits if completed.

Two, I would make it a practice to push myself to go a little further and do more, knowing this would help strengthen and grow the aMCC.

I focused on four key tasks:

Getting up Quickly – I always stayed in bed and looked at my phone for anywhere from 30 minutes to hours if I didn’t have any place to be in the morning. It was time that I could never get back. I wanted to push myself to start my days strongly.

Cold Baths – I hate feeling cold, and I especially do not like getting into cold water.  But, I had heard of the benefits of cold baths, and I knew that this would be a good way to really challenge myself to do something I was very reluctant to do.

Exercise – I was getting older, which meant I was becoming stiffer and weaker. And as my body got stiffer and weaker, it made me even more reluctant to exercise because I knew it would take a lot of effort and time to get back in shape.  I decided to do a certain amount of stretching and calisthenics every day.

Writing – I wanted to create content and I knew writing was a good way to do so. I had two problems. I always put off writing because my mind was full of disorganized ideas and worries, and when I did write, I often would stop when I wasn’t sure how I wanted to say what I had to say. This would lead to articles being worked on for weeks at a time.

With these four tasks in mind, I would just make myself work on them no matter what, and I would challenge myself to do more when I was in the middle of doing them

I would remind myself that pushing back against those feelings of wanting to delay or do something else would help to strengthen my aMCC and grow my willpower.

The Benefits I got from Following my Plan

I discovered that once I had decided to do something and started, the hardest part was over. Once I got up out of bed, once I sat down in the cold water, once I started the first stretch, or once I started writing, I found the pushback from my primitive brain was gone, and it was easy to continue.

After doing this for a while, I noticed several benefits.

My self-confidence had grown. As I started working more consistently on the things I had felt a lot of reluctance to do, I noticed that my self-confidence had grown. I felt better about myself because I wasn’t letting those fears and negative feelings get in the way. I was able to see that I had a lot of control over my tasks.

I got things done. Learning to push myself further, especially for writing, helped me finish things. It also helped me to build my focus and concentration. I started to feel more empowered, and I could see myself slowly progressing towards my goals.

This spilled into other areas. As I pushed myself to overcome my fears and hesitations, I noticed that I had created a stronger mindset. I found that it was easier to tackle other problems. I also got a lot of minor things completed that I often put off. I had more discipline when it came to things like diet and getting to bed early.

I felt more in control of my life.  Instead of floating down a river and letting the wind and current lead me wherever it wanted, I felt like I had a paddle and could control where to go. I was able to do things even when I wasn’t in the mood or lacking motivation.

Most importantly, with all of this, I found that my worries and stress had decreased and that I felt more optimistic about things.

Making Your Own Plan – Some Tips to Help You Succeed

First, make a short list of things that, if done, will help to improve your life. This list should be things that you find unpleasant to start.

It’s even better if you have a create a daily checklist that you can mark daily to mark your progress.

Second, learn to push yourself. When your mind tells you to take a break, or you find yourself starting to get distracted, ask yourself if you can do one more rep, write one more minute, finish one more paragraph, etc. and then do it. Remind yourself that this is making you stronger.

Tip 1 – Do not focus on the goal or task. Focus on overcoming hesitation and pushing yourself to do things that you are reluctant to do.

When I had a goal to write and publish an article in one day, I had strong pushback from my primitive brain and rarely met my goal. But when I changed my focus to overcome the hesitation of starting, and then pushing myself to go a little bit further when I felt like taking a break, my writing productivity greatly increased.

Changing from focusing on the task to teaching myself to overcome my hesitations, made it easier to work on my things.

Tip 2 – This is similar to the first tip but change how you perceive the task. Instead of looking at it as a task to complete, I looked at it as training, and I always told myself that I was building the aMCC muscle. This simple shift in thinking made it much easier to start.

Tip 3 – Every time you overcome your pushback, celebrate it. It will give you a dopamine shot helping your brain get more used to overcoming the push. By focusing on getting past the hesitation and celebrating it, it will help to create new neural pathways making it easier to push yourself over time.

Summary

Attacking your hesitations is better than focusing on goals that are far away, and it is easier to do. By learning to focus on attacking your fears, hesitations, and pushbacks, you become mentally stronger.

“Teach yourself that it isn’t okay to take the easy way out. Make sure you are bothered by the things you set out to do but did not complete or make time for in the day.” –David Goggins

Done consistently, it can bring you a feeling of empowerment in a short time which will lead to stronger self-confidence and motivation.

Let me know what hesitations you will practice overcoming in the comments below!

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