Why tomorrow never changes you

We’ve all done it. It’s December, and probably we’re all writing it down right now. I’ll wake up at 4 from the new year, I’ll hit the gym from tomorrow, or I’ll go on a strict diet after this one party. However, that resolution never sees the light of day or dies in a few days. Have you ever wondered why? There are two ‘factors’ playing a role in this. The first one, which we probably know but ignore, is the False Hope Syndrome. Proposed by Janet Polivy and Peter Herman in 2002, it is self-explanatory: we overestimate our ability to change and in addition to that, we underestimate the challenges and failures that come with it; in economic terms, we ignore the externalities. It can be understood better with a real-world situation. Take the life of a coder. Let’s say he is working on a project when a new project is assigned to him. What is the extra work he needs to do? Another few hours of coding, right? The fact is, it’s many more hours of meetings, emails, etc which productivity experts call overhead tax. The tax of taking that project. That is exactly what we do with our goals. Waking up at 5 am has an overhead tax going to bed earlier than usual. Hitting the gym has extra travel every day, and you have to borrow time from another task for that. The other side to this coin is the idea of Temporal Discounting. Again, we are guilty of doing this; it’s about focusing on immediate pleasures and delaying the habit or task because of a relief you get from thinking you’ll be better tomorrow. For those of you asking for the founders of this theory, it was discovered by Richard Herrnstein and George Ainslie.  So, what is the solution to this problem? Try to start that habit as soon as possible, but also be cautious about thinking and planning everything; never allow overhead tax to go unnoticed.

 I might sound childish, but I will include a quote from one of my favorite shows, Ninjago, in which the teacher, Sensei Wu, says “Never put of till tomorrow what can be done today”. Those of you familiar with American history know who actually first said that. For those who don’t know, I’m gonna leave you pondering.