The Nerdist Way_ How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life) - Chris Hardwick [31]
There are a million different ways to express hyperbole. Relat-edly, there are a million different ways to achieve a goal from a mental standpoint. I think we naturally assume that we have to accomplish the goal for the goal’s sake. The truth is, things have no innate value. If you say, “I want a million dollars,” it’s not the money you want but the feelings it will bring you. Your feelings are rooted in your emotions, and herein lies your ability to play with your motivations. To your brain, wanting a million dollars is meaningless. You have no emotional connection to that.
Consider the following two options:
1. I want a million dollars!
2. I want a million dollars to save an orphanage! (Or replace your nipples with diamonds. Whatever. I’m not judging you.)
In option 2, you’ve modified your motivation. You’re working toward that money for a cause that you care about, not just for the idea of possessing a thing or scratching something off your list. If you care enough about that cause, you’ll happily do whatever needs to be done to make it happen.
TWEAK YOUR MOTIVATIONS TO GET BETTER RESULTS
When I was fifteen, I was a part-time caddy at a snooty Caucasian coven known as a “country club.” I always hated the job because rich Caucs (I call white people “Caucs”) take their golf game VERY seriously, and I always felt tremendous pressure to not upset them by losing their stupid ball because of their stupid slice. Often, I would find excuses not to have to go run around a golf course on weekends like a trained and clothed chimp. I was working for “money,” but I only had a vague idea of what to do with it once I got it. That all changed when a guy I sort of knew got a really mega-hot girlfriend. I didn’t have a mega-hot anything, so I was intrigued. What was it about this guy?? He wasn’t rich (but he wasn’t poor either). He wasn’t even that pleasant-looking. Rather than credit his personality, I zeroed in on his style: He was a kick-ass skier and had a snazzy pair of Vuarnet sunglasses. It’s important to note that I was living in Denver at the time, hence the ski tidbit. My teenage mind reasoned that of the only two things that HAD to make this girl like him, the glasses would be more expedient to acquire than skiing expertise. I became determined to possess a pair.
Sadly, Vuarnet sunglasses were $100, which we considered expensive in those days. Still, I had to make it happen. For six weeks straight, I caddied my ASS off, and happily to boot. Every time I’d get tired or cranky, I’d play through the movie in my head of what would definitely occur once I got those bitchin’ eye shields ∙ I’d put them on, walk into the mall, superhot girls would see me walk by, and then sex would start happening on me. (I also may have thrown my thwarting-a-terrorist-attack-with-martial-arts skills into the final edit even though I didn’t actually know a martial art.)
That detailed (albeit sadly misguided) cerebral play was the emotional motivation I needed to get through something I hated doing. Not only that, but the snapshot in my mind of that whole scenario took my focus off the dreadfulness of the work and made it FLY by. SIDE NOTE: After a week, I lost the glasses but not my virginity.
STRENGTH AS MOTIVATION
Let’s say you don’t have a pair of magic sex glasses you want to buy. What if the very reason you did anything at all was because you were committed to the concept of improvement itself? This was one of the things that helped me with my fear of flying. For a while, I was a wreck every time I was on a plane. Deep breaths helped me in the moment, but I was still feeling like I needed to tackle this fear at a deeper level. I wanted to get to a place where the breathercizing (another made-up word) wasn’t even necessary to begin with. Something I noticed, however, was that every time I arrived