Get leverage
‘Give me a lever long enough and a prop strong enough; I can single-handedly move the world.’ – Archimedes
We often treat change as a ‘should’ and not a ‘must’. Even if we do really believe we need to change, it still ends up on the ‘tomorrow’ pile amongst all the other things we want to do but haven’t committed to.
We do more to avoid pain than we do to gain pleasure. Creating leverage is about breaking through the pain barrier – making it very painful to wait until tomorrow and much less painful to just do something now.
Most people can remember a time when they left a school assignment to the last minute. It kept getting closer and closer to the deadline, and while you were enjoying all the things you were doing instead, the pressure was starting to build up. At one point your mind flipped over to the ‘it must be done now!’ mode and you got the whole lot done in one evening – or maybe through the night!
If there are behaviours you want to adopt and changes you want to make but haven’t started yet, the pain for failing may not be intense enough. In the example of the school assignment, there would have been two sources of pain if you failed: externally applied from your parents and teachers, and internally applied because you would have known you hadn’t met your own standards. Of the two, the internal motivator is the strongest form of leverage.
In order to get leverage, there are two questions you will need to think about:
1. If I don’t take action, what will it cost me in…
…my life?
…my relationships?
…my finances?
…my health?
…my levels of happiness?
2. If I do take action, how will it benefit…
…my life?
…my relationships?
…my finances?
…my health?
…my levels of happiness?