How to Motivate Yourself To Do What You Don’t Want To Do

If you have trouble getting yourself to do unpleasant work, here’s what you can do. Think about what you’ll get for doing the unpleasant work, and how happy you’ll be to get what you want after you do the unpleasant work. Then realize that the happiness you’re getting from getting what you want is exactly what doing the unpleasant work for someone else would give to that person. That other person is going to be happy they get what they want, when you give them the gift of doing the work that is unpleasant for you.
It’s happiness for happiness. Reframing it as giving happiness instead of doing unpleasant work can help you swallow doing the unpleasant work.

You can change your perspective of the task. You can use empathy to understand the other person’s point of view. They want to give you item A in exchange for item B. If you were the other person, and you wanted someone to give you item B and they gave you item C, you would be upset and disappointed because you wanted B. You were willing to give A for B, but someone is giving you C and asking for A and you don’t want that. Don’t put someone else in that situation. If they ask for B for A, either give them B, or refuse and don’t participate. Or use influence and persuasion to find a pre-agreed upon C that you can give and they can accept in exchange for A.


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