The Instant-Gratification Monkey 🐒
This is my recap of Tim Urban and the tale of the instant-gratification monkey, the deadline monster and the rationale decision-maker that all run our brains.
His story-telling, simplistic explanations and pacing made the lessons learned easily accessible to the audience and the topic of procrastination is universally relatable.
My take-aways from Tim Urban’s story is the necessity of deadlines.
In his story-telling, procrastination is a light-hearted, funny and silly fable of sorts but procrastination, as he alluded to, can also represent a burdensome, dreadful experience that haunts people.
Urban distinguishes between these two types of procrastinations based on the existence of a hard deadline - a date by which some resolution or alleviation of stress is achieved OR the lack of a hard deadline - in which case the individual suffers indefinitely and is never able to achieve relief.
That is simply why it is absolutely necessary to be truthful to yourself about your ambitions, your desires, and to pursue them with a fervid passion - so that you hold yourself accountable, decide for yourself hard deadlines, and stay the course.
It truly makes me appreciate and stand in awe particularly with athletes because their deadlines are so abstract and so non-linear. You would never be able to trace clearly the impact of healthy food choices, regular or adequate sleep, the extra benefit of 100 more free-throws at practice and yet these athletes have the mental fortitude to continue to do them. There is no hard deadline. There is no end date until they fully retire from their sport.
Like seriously. When you imagine an NBA player, they are already on a highest world stage. They have already dedicated years of their lives to get to that point. And yet, the distinguishing factor between them is the desire to win and the readiness to prioritize practice and skill development on a daily basis towards their craft.
And this insurmountable goal extends day after day, season after season, year after year until they retire in their 30s or 40s. But they practice the same shots, the same drills to be able to complete them effortlessly.
It is only through their own arbitrary deadline goal setting that they can continue to strive for perfection.
So, What Does This Mean For Your Average Joe?
I think there are 2 take-aways.
1. Be Strict.
Establish deadlines for yourself because you understand and are aware of your procrastinatory tendencies. You know you are going to avoid doing work if there are fun and relaxing options available. So, set a deadline for yourself and hold yourself accountable for this deadline - even if it’s a hard deadline you arbitrarily decided for yourself.
2. Understand And Audit Yourself.
It is only through introspective evaluation that Urban recognized his own patterns and could then translate them into a relatable story for the audience. It is a skill in itself to review your own habits and tendencies to then be able to authentically be critical of them.
Only YOU truly know the excuses, reasons, and explanations for why you can and cannot achieve something. Only YOU can determine if those reasons are legitimate or if they are procrastinatory justifications.
HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE
TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR INSTANT-GRATIFICATION MONKEY
There is nothing wrong with seeking out instant-gratification.
But there is a time and place for it.
And you have the ability to assign or allocate time for it to do so in a healthy manner. If your entire day is instant-gratification, then it leans towards unhealthy but if you allot 2-3 hours a day for instant-gratification, short-term happiness, and a dopamine-hit then it is helpful for balance and mental health.
Going for a quick walk, getting a short hike or sunshine is good.
Building into your schedules these allotted times and also maintaining your ‘need to do’ duties with hard deadlines is the key to a successful longevity.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to surf the internet for a vinyl record I want to buy. After all, I’ve completed my weekly arbitrary deadline for blogging. Looking back now, that momentum has carried me over 6 months of weekly blogging, so these arbitrary deadlines do an amazing wonder of compartmentalizing problems and tasks into shorter goals as well =)