How To Reprogram Your Brain To Stop Always Choosing Instant Gratification

Empower your logical thinking brain region.

Since time immemorial, human beings have found it difficult to reconcile their long-term interests with the pleasure of instant gratification. I guess you have already wanted to eat better to be healthier before you finally broke down and went to eat fast food with your friends.

You wanted to start a crucial task, and finally, you took your smartphone in your hands to see what was happening on social networks.

Behind this difficulty in reconciling short-term rewards with long-term goals is a real scientific reason. Research from Princeton University has shown that we have two distinct regions in the brain:

• A region associated with our emotions.

• Another region is associated with abstract reasoning.

You have immediately understood that the emotional part of our brain will respond positively to instant gratification, while the other region will try to help us favor the long-term approach.

If you are offered a piece of chocolate cake or a fruit salad, these two parts of your brain will conflict. The emotional part will want you to have the immediate pleasure of the chocolate cake. The logical part of your brain will try to get you to choose the fruit salad, which is better for your health in the long run.

What is difficult for you is that your brain is pushing you to get the immediate reward as soon as it is near. So you're going to have to reprogram your brain to teach it to better see the long-term consequences of your short-term choices.

Your brain will have to be able to rationalize things so that it no longer gives in to those instant gratifications that prevent you from achieving great things in the long term. Because this will become a problem at all levels of your life if you don't take care of it.

To reprogram your brain, here are 4 methods to follow:

1. Build a supportive environment to stop giving in

The first thing to do is to give yourself the best chance to succeed in letting go of your emotions when immediate gratification comes your way. To do this, you need to build a supportive environment to maximize your chances of not giving in.

If your goal is to eat healthier, you need to stop buying things that will tempt you and are bad for your health in the long run.

If you want to be more productive, you also need to eliminate all potential distractions. This means turning off notifications on your smartphone for example, so that you don't let social network applications capture your attention at all times.

This will allow you to better manage your time and spend it on the things you really value.

2. Get back to basics to put your brain in the best possible condition

You may have already noticed that when you are tired or demoralized, you tend to give in more easily to the instant gratification that comes your way. To prevent this from happening, you need to get back to the basics of a healthy, balanced life.

Exercise more and sleep better. Your sleep should be your top priority.

The more rested you are, the more you will be able to let your logical thinking take over your emotions. You need to monitor your energy level constantly as soon as you feel yourself slipping back into your old ways.

3. Align your emotions with your long-term goals

Despite all your precautions, there will always be times when your emotions override your sense of logical reasoning. Our emotions can be so powerful that they override all our other abilities.

A good tip is to align your emotions with your long-term goals. Make your long-term goals translate into smaller, achievable steps in the short term.

This will allow you to get immediate gratification for things that will bring you closer to your long-term goals. You'll find the perfect compromise between the two worlds.

4. Just do the good things

The last method is probably the most difficult because it is about willpower. You know what you really want. So you have to make sure that you stick to your goals. All the tricks in the world can't replace your willpower.

You know how to do it. Then do it!

Got an important task ahead of you? Take action immediately. Force yourself to start it. Once you start the task, you'll find you can't stop until it's finished.

Distractions and emotions can distract you from your long-term goals, but if you keep it intentional, you'll find that things will become a good habit. You will then have successfully reprogrammed your brain to stop giving in to instant gratification.

Final Thoughts

In life, there are always two paths: the easy path that brings you instant gratification and the hard path that will help you achieve your long-term goals. The human brain naturally tends to favor the easy path with short-term pleasant rewards.

Once you are aware of this scientific reality, you will be able to effectively reprogram your brain using the 4 methods I have revealed here. As always, it will all start with your willingness to change to become a better version of yourself.