How Pavlov & His Dogs Saved My Life

My addiction to video games was quite nearly the death of me. I played for hours & hours every single day, and they totally destroyed my quality of life.

I hated myself for letting things get so bad and wasting so much of my time - but quitting them felt completely hopeless!

I could never seem to muster the willpower to kick that miserable habit. It wasn’t until I radically changed my approach towards “willpower” & personal growth that I found a way out.

Oddly enough, it was Ivan Pavlov’s famous study of classical conditioning (yes, the guy with the dogs) that changed how I thought about how I make choices - and the changes I made clearly saved my life from an untimely end.

In this post, we’re going to talk about how I stumbled upon a technique that Tony Robbins calls “Neuro-Associative Conditioning” and how it allows me to re-wire my brain to obey my intentions and desires.

Finally? We’ll cover how you can use these techniques, too.

Starting around my 10th birthday, I was on my PC slaying monsters in Azeroth or brawling on Summoner’s Rift at virtually every moment I was allowed to do so… and when I entered adulthood & began living on my own, things got worse - much worse.

Throughout my early 20’s, I was up late almost every night playing League of Legends, and that compulsion took a heavy toll on every aspect of my life. Every day I dumped into a game saw another pound tacked on to my waistline, and another ounce of hope drained from my soul.

I couldn’t focus on my classes, my work, or (trying to) date, because I poured every free moment I had into video games - desperate to feel something resembling happiness - or (more honestly) numbness.

If you’ve been down this road yourself, you know how this course of action tends to turn out. The dopamine hits that video games offer stop feeling pleasant - but you find yourself craving them regardless.

I was at the end of my rope mentally, financially, and emotionally, and I began making the sort of plans that people feeling such despair often do.

I still remember thinking to myself… “if nothing changes, it’s probably time to call it a life". Then, something changed. I discovered a more effective way to think about and address this habit that was well on its way to killing me - and it applies to almost everything you or I choose to do in life.

In This Newsletter:

1. The Pain/Pleasure Principle
   Willpower isn’t an effective motivator over the long run. You will inevitably respond to the stimuli you experience - pleasant or painful.

2. How Pavlov & His Dogs Saved My Life
   Humans are susceptible to classical conditioning, and you’re no exception. Let’s look at how I reshaped my brain’s response towards both unpleasant-but-healthy & harmful-but-pleasant behaviors.

The Pain/Pleasure Principle

I was listening to Tony Robbins’ “Awaken The Giant Within” audiobook this last Sunday during my flight home from my 3-week adventure in Utah.

It was quite good from the outset, but my ears really perked up about 1/3 of the way in, when he started talking about something he calls the “Pain/Pleasure Principle”.

This “PPP” is the idea that the actions that we take over the long run are not determined by a person’s willpower, nor a long series of intentional choices being made. They are a function of how you expect an action will make you feel - especially in the short term.

Consistently choosing to do something (or not) is a response to whether you associate that action with either pain or pleasure.

Consider The Salad

Intellectually, I know that if I ate a salad for lunch every day, I’d be a much healthier and happier person over the long run... However!

I don’t derive much immediate pleasure from eating leafy greens, and given the choice, I’d actually say the act of eating a salad for lunch is closer to “pain”.

Can you guess what I had for lunch yesterday? Not salad!

Every single choice you make is like this. Your brain will weigh the perceived likelihood, immediacy, and intensity of the pain and/or pleasure associated with an option you’re considering. Then, you’ll almost always do whatever option that you expect to maximize your pleasure & minimize your pain.

The Dangers Of Thinking Like A Caveman

Your brain defaults to assuming that if something is pleasurable, it is good for you (or your evolutionary fitness) - and if something is painful - it is harmful. Given the conditions humans evolved in, this used to be a solid guess - but the world we live in has changed quite a lot in ~50,000 years.

People who just choose to do what feels good in the moment find themselves poor and broke at best, or addicted - then dead - at worst. Successful people know that keeping their “time preference” low is a key to a happy healthy life.

Your “time preference” for immediate pleasure (or deferred pain) is just one of many ways that your brain is failing you. Our actions are dictated mostly by those two perceived outcomes of pain and pleasure - but are we hopelessly enslaved by that reality?

No. Well… not exactly. We can’t defeat our tyranny of preferences, but we can put our thumb on the scale with an approach known as “conditioning”.

How Pavlov And His Dogs Saved My Life

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