What I wanted to share with you today is the power of... collecting! I hadn't thought about it until recently, but I really love collecting things, yet not the kind of things you might expect. Most people associate collecting with the hobby of a greasy overweight guy in his 30s with a passion for stamps. And sure, that's a valid form of collecting, but it's not really what I'm referring to.
I'm talking about collecting experiences.
Now let me give you an example. I used to hate reading. Reading a few pages would make my head hurt and I would just drop the book, because it just seemed like a waste of time and it just reinforced the "dude, you can't finish this book" belief in my head.
So at first I started reading ridiculously short books, just to prove to myself that "woah, I can actually finish a book" and that gave me the confidence to keep on going. Then I discovered Goodreads, which is basically an online book database that allows you to keep track of what books you've read and create a list of them.
It felt pretty good to add a book to my list and increase the total number of books I've read. Slowly but surely, the number kept on rising and rising... and with each book I completed, I wanted to read more and more! At this point it's a habit and I would most likely continue to read even without logging the books I've read, but it just goes to show how the dopamine spike (the reward) from adding a new item to your "collection" can propel you towards an upward spiral.
Another example - work. Man, I was lazy. To be honest, I still struggle with this and I'm trying to develop a solid work ethic, but I would say that collecting is making this process significantly easier.
How did I combine work and collecting? Simple - whenever I made something (an article, a video, or perhaps I just reached a certain milestone like "solve 10 programming problems"), I would give myself a pat on the back and log it in a simple text document. As the list keeps growing and growing, my motivation to add more items to the list grows as well. It's even cooler when you look back on your accomplishments. Another upward spiral!
Lastly, I'm kind of an introvert by nature and I'm a huge fan of peace and quiet. But I also realize that nothing good in life comes from just sitting around in your little box of complete harmony. I want to travel more, get more experiences etc, but I'm scared. How can I get around that? Same principle.
Start a list (I actually did this for a number of weeks and called it my "excitement log") and commit to doing at least one new exciting and unusual thing each week, regardless of how small it is. Soon your list will grow, you'll look back on what you've done and you'll be able to rationalize that "hey, I'm just doing my weekly habit" and you won't fear the consequences as much, because regardless of what happens - you can just add the experience to your list and feel good about it.
Try it out and let me know if it works for you! Peace!
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