Pain and Pleasure
The outcomes in our life are determined by our decisions. Our decisions are driven by two massive forces, pain and pleasure. Every decision you make, no matter how big or small, is made based on the feelings of pain and pleasure. If you associate enough pleasure with an action, you will perform that action. If you know that not taking a particular action will cause you pain, then you will not take that action. Therefore, to consistently make decisions that give you the results you want you need to associate enough pain or pleasure with the necessary actions.
For example, everyone agrees that smoking is very bad for your health. Yet the immediate pleasure associated with smoking a cigarette overrides the pain of a terminal illness down the road. If someone can associate massive pain with smoking then they can quit. If I were to put up an x-ray showing a small tumor in the lung and tell the patient if you stop smoking today you will live, but if you continue to smoke, you will die in three months, I believe that person would stop smoking that day. Why? Because all of the pleasure they associate with puffing on a cigarette will be blown away by the massive pain they associate with being dead in three months.
I see patients every day that are in my office because the pain they have, or the pain associated with not being able to do the things they love, has gotten them to take the time, and spend the money, to get well. I also see patients everyday that have chosen to make chiropractic care a part of their overall wellness plan because they associate pleasure with leading a long life with little sickness, or they associate pain with ending up like their parents and grandparents if they are not proactive with their health.
If you change your behavior you will get different results. You can change any action today by linking either massive pleasure or massive pain with your behavior. Pain is stronger than pleasure when it comes to driving human behavior. So try linking massive pain to your bad habits or massive pain with not doing things you know will create the outcomes you want, and watch your behavior change instantly.
If you have been debating whether or not to get checked in our office think about this: there is great pleasure in getting an answer to your health problems, there is great pleasure in feeling full of life and energy, there is great pleasure in knowing you are doing the best thing possible for your health, there is massive pain in finding out you could have been helped, but waited too long. There is massive pain with letting your health deteriorate until you cannot golf, garden, or even go for a walk. There is massive pain in living a life of aches and pains.