🧗 Hard Choices → Easy Life

Why hard decisions now make life easier and better later.

Author

Flocus
July 28, 2024

Hey there! Welcome back to The Flow by Flocus. And to the 3,387 new subscribers this week, hello and welcome 👋 If you’re new, you can catch up on our previous editions right here.

This week: We’re diving into why hard choices you make today can and will lead to an easier, more fulfilling life later. Plus, some tips and motivation for achieving your big life goals. Let’s go:

🧗 A Hard Truth About Life

We often make life harder for ourselves by taking the easy way out.

Unfortunately, our brains are wired to take the path of least resistance to save energy.

That’s why procrastinating, overspending, and eating junk food feel so easy in the short term. These choices require less energy than the alternatives, and they give you an instant reward.

But the truth is life actually gets easier when you do hard things.

Think about it:

  • Going to the gym right now feels hard — but mobility problems are harder.

  • Saving and investing money right now feels hard — but financial instability is harder.

  • Studying right now feels hard — but failing your exam is harder.

When you’re faced with the choice of what to do with your morning, day, evening, try going for the “harder” thing (if you have the energy). Your future self will thank you!

It sounds simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Thankfully, there are some things you can do to make hard choices feel easier and more effortless. Scroll on!

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Now, here’s how to start making hard decisions for an easy life:

😌 3 Ways to Make Hard Choices Easier

Let’s explore 3 tried and tested ways to make difficult choices feel easier in the short term, for a better life long-term.

⚡️ Use the DIRN method

DIRN, which stands for Do It Right Now, is a topic we’ve covered before here on The Flow. (And one our team actually uses to get things done!)

The concept is pretty straightforward: if you can complete a task right now, do it.

Procrastinating creates extra work for yourself and costs you even more time. What’s the point in putting something off until later if you can do it right now?

With enough practice, DIRN will become second nature for both easy and hard decisions.

🔮 “Talk” to your future self

Your ideal future self depends on the choices you make today.

If you continue to repeat habits and behaviors that steer you away from your dream life instead of toward it, then your ideal future self will never materialize — and you’ll be left with immense regret and disappointment.

To stay true to your path, try mentally “talking” to your future self. Really take time to visualize them. What do they look like? How do they dress and behave?

When you need guidance, consult your future self with questions like:

  • What should I do right now to get one step closer to where I want to be?

  • What advice do you want me to know in this moment?

With Future You by your side, it will be easier to make the right decisions — no matter how hard they may feel in the short term.

💖 Try some affirmations

This one might sound cliche, but affirmations are so popular because they really work.

Make a habit of repeating them to yourself — out loud, in your head, or in a journal — when things get tough.

Here are a few to get started with if you’re ever feeling unmotivated, overwhelmed, or distracted:

  • I am capable of doing hard things.

  • My future self needs me to show up today.

  • Baby steps are better than no steps at all.

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The sooner you get started with making hard choices in the present moment, the easier your life will be in the long term.

Try some of these tips this week and let us know how it goes!

Until next Sunday,

Flocus Team