The Region Beta Paradox

“Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.” -Tony Robbins

“Before a big movie comes out, I just remind myself: I was evicted when I was 14, we were kicked off the island, we couldn’t live in Hawaii, had no place to live, a lot of shit happened when I moved to Nashville, I was arrested multiple times before I was 16 years old…I remember that…What helps me is to keep the hard times in the front of my mind because it allows me to go into these big moments that I worked my ass off to get with a different perspective…What it also does for me is that I keep my back against this motherfcker [points to wall] because it’s what I believe in. And when my back is against this motherfcker then there is nowhere else to go but [forward].” -excerpt from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson speech to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018.

Per Wikipedia, the Region Beta Paradox is “the phenomenon that people can sometimes recover more quickly from more distressing experiences than from less distressing ones. The hypothesized reason is that intense states trigger psychological defense processes that reduce the distress, while less intense states do not trigger the same psychological defense processes and, therefore, less effective attenuation of the stress occurs.”

Or put another way per this Medium article, it is “a weird human tendency to remain in a state of mild discomfort and only jump into action (or make that decision) when things get super uncomfortable or downright painful. It’s like waiting until our bedrooms are a total disaster zone before we clean it up or waiting until the last moment to do a project…This becomes an issue when we decide to make a decision only at a certain point or threshold…Region Beta is just short of our threshold of ‘badness’.”

The term was first coined by psychologist Daniel Gilbert in a paper that gave the example of a commuter who if they have to travel under a mile, will walk. If over a while, they’ll drive (or ride a bike). Since the car is faster, the commuter will reach some distant locations more quickly than nearer destinations (region beta in their diagram), reversing the normal tendency to arrive later at more distant locations. Therefore, paradoxically we would go a longer distance faster, in effect making a worse situation better.

It’s a fascinating phenomenon and yet another example that highlights we don’t always behave rationally or logically.

Is there anything we can do to avoid being stuck in this paradox for months or years on end?

I think it starts with just being aware. Noticing areas in your life where the barnacle of complacency has set in. You might need to do something to purposely shake things up.

Or as The Rock advises…intentionally put your back against the motherf-cking wall.