Gemma Speck

I also think with that quote, there is also this underlying secondary sense that maybe you and I, we don't deserve success if we don't almost suffer for it, if we don't strive for it, if it came to us easily.

Today, I want to talk about that.

I want to talk about this idea of how we can train our brain to do hard things by offering you a different approach, a different formula or understanding, one in which hard things become easier using some of these principles of psychology that

that mean that we find difficult tasks less mentally taxing.

We find it less difficult to start.

We appreciate the rewards more, you know, all motivation, our desire to do anything big or small, even the most mundane of tasks.

It all starts in the brain and it all starts with how we perceive how difficult the thing in front of us is and how we perceive the outcome and the rewards of our hard effort.

That is actually something that we can influence.

We can influence how our brain kind of perceives all of these components and mean that the hard, difficult things that all of us have to do in our 20s, like the things that are just so frustrating and annoying that we often put off, become less of a chore.

I will also say our brain does like a challenge, even when it's a bit physically, mentally painful.

That's something that I think sometimes we forget when we just keep taking the easy route, which I'm definitely guilty of.

The New York Marathon, as I'm recording this, was I think a couple of weeks ago.

I love the New York Marathon and every time I watch it, I think, why does anyone want to do that?

And the answer is that the feeling of doing hard things that exert us is something that we actually value as humans that is something that actually we do need more of in our lives it all comes down to this thing known as the effort paradox the more effort we put into something the more we value it.

That's why, you know, you value the crappy mug that you made at a pottery class over the perfect mug that you got at Ikea.

The end of a hard project is valued more than the outcome of an easy one.

And it actually does make our life feel more fulfilling.

We feel proud of ourselves and we just reap the rewards.

So

Today, let us break down exactly how we can use the principles of behavioral psychology mainly, but also neuroscience to do the hard things, to start the hard routines, especially in our 20s when we can reap a lot of lifelong rewards from getting into the habit, from biting the bullet.