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Low Balls and Candies

Automatic and Unthinking Consistency.

Disclaimer: Some obvious truths are awfully easy to miss.

It is when you ask someone to make a commitment based on a reward, and just before the commitment is about to end, remove the reward.

At this point, there will be other legs other than the reward that will support their new-born commitment.

Have you ever been in a situation where you either bought something or helped someone? The weird part is you didn’t wanna buy or help but you still did and you don’t even know why.

You bought it because there was a candy as your reward. You helped because maybe the old lady would give you some candy for a reward, or maybe your crush was passing by.

Now, these are commitments that are small and may not make a big difference in your life. But, what if you could use this process to help you with other big things that matter to you? Wouldn’t that be nice?

I bet.

So, you want to start writing but you cannot bring yourself to do it. What do you do?

How can you use lowballing technique to get it done? If you are smart like me, you have already guessed it. Yes, you set up a reward.

At this point, you may ask, ‘What reward Syed? What are we talking about here? Can you give us examples?’

Well, of course, I can. Here they are:

Finish writing a page and you treat yourself with a nice cold beer. Or ice cream?

When you have finally started writing, you will already be in the flow. After this, the reward is irrelevant. Why? Because it is not about you finishing something. It is about starting something, you want to finish. Get it?

The hard part is to start and once you have done that, you are already halfway there.

I know what you are thinking and you are right. This technique may not work best if you apply it to yourself.

Simply, because you control whether you take the reward or not. I will emphasise again that it is not about the reward or the end of what you started. It is about the start.

You can ask someone else to do it for you, if you don’t trust yourself to be accountable. I know it is scary to ask someone to do it because if you fail again, they might think bad of you.

Yes, they might but they will also respect you for trying. A lot of us aren’t even trying and going out there, putting ourselves out there. That takes courage.

You can even use this technique to help others.

Of course, don’t tell them ‘I am going to use lowballing technique on you.’

Ask them what exactly they are struggling with. Ask them to do it and they will get a reward at the end. Keep the reward a secret if you have to.

I know you have read this already and it is redundant and obvious information but I cannot emphasize enough on how easily we miss the obvious truths around us.

It is the same reason we do not appreciate the little things in our lives. We don’t even consider them to be important enough to make us happy. They are too obvious for that. Right?

You do it everyday. Why must you be happy for walking to school or your office? Everyone does.

No.

Why must you be happy to able to speak? Everyone can.

No.

I know these examples are very generic but you get the point.

Yes. Yes.

Not all problems demand complex solutions. Sometimes it is that simple. Really.

Why is it so hard to believe?

I cannot wake up early. Just give yourself a strong reason and problem solved. Now, remember, if you try to create some BS reason just to wake up early, of course it will lead to a lot of complexities and even after that it won’t work.

Keep it simple silly.

Figure out what matters to you the most and build on that.

Most of our problems have a simple solution, believe it or not. We are just taught that we need to think and work hard and after a ridiculous amount of decision trees and mathematical formulas, we get a solution.

And btw, planning and overthinking are two different things.

If there is one thing you want to take from this article, just keep it simple. Use simple techniques.

Think and then act. Look at the bigger picture first. Don’t rush in like everyone else. Believe me, I have missed the bigger picture so many times only to realise when it was too late.

Stop, think, and act.

Thank you for reading this article. :)

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