Skinner’s Law

“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.” -Jeremy Bentham

“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.” -Tony Robbins

“Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.” Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

“Someone once asked Somerset Maughham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. “I write only when inspiration strikes,” he replied. “Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

“Skinner’s Law is a core tool in your fight against someday. Someday I’ll write that book. Someday I’ll start that business. Someday I’ll find that partner. Someday I’ll take that leap of faith…Stop saying someday. Someday is the enemy…Make someday today. Do the thing.” -Sahil Bloom

Once you learn the Region Beta Paradox, you then understand why we all tend to procrastinate.

The antidote to procrastination?

Try utilizing Skinner’s Law.

Which (per Sahil Bloom’s excellent post) states that:

To get yourself to do something, you need to either:

• Make the pain of not doing it greater than the pain of doing it, or
• Make the pleasure of doing it greater than the pleasure of not doing it

I encourage you to read Sahil’s full post. He details several ways you can hack your motivation. The key is trying out different tactics until you find the one that works best for you and your personality.

Remember, the Resistance is real. And it’s a motherf-cker. You need all the help you can to fight it.