As I alluded to in my previous post, there are two different ways to pass your spare time:
- Activities that bring about gratification.
- Activities that bring about joy.
These words are often used interchangeably, but they each carry distinct emotional implications.
What is Gratification?
Gratification is getting something pleasurable immediately in exchange for minimal effort. In other words, gratification satisfies our impulsive wants right now. Think video games, DoorDash, and Amazon.
Long term gratification isn’t sustainable when working on larger projects, such as writing books. Why? Because gratification encourages quick wins that can distract us from achieving lasting satisfaction over time.
It encourages us to seek lower-effort gratification. Our brains want that sweet dopamine hit for the least amount of effort possible. And rest-assured, we will eventually find the lowest hanging fruit.
Whatever your lowest hanging fruit may be, I can almost guarantee it won’t have anything to do with a task as difficult as writing a book.
Understanding Joy
On the flip side stands joy; this type of happiness isn’t tied to anything materialistic. Rather than momentary pleasure, true joy emerges gradually over time from activities that engage us fully and bear fruit. It doesn’t fade easily due to its deeper roots within us.
Think learning to play an instrument or learning a new skill in general, working out, reading, writing a book, or even blogging. These are the endeavors that bear fruit and make us stronger, bringing about long-lasting joy.
Raising a happy family and finding Christ are perhaps the two greatest sources of joy you can experience in this life.
Of course, not everyone has the willpower to get out of the gratification ghetto and find joy. Finding joy takes effort. Real effort. The kind that must be built with patience and consistency, finding the willpower day after day to resist instant gratification, staying focused on the goal.
When applied to creative endeavors, seeking joy instead of gratification makes the process itself enjoyable regardless of external outcomes. This way, the writer focuses not only on completing tasks, but also on nurturing a sense of fulfillment during the entire journey.
We do live in a world of instant gratification.
Instead of learning to cook, we have instant meals and fast food. Instead of mailing handwritten letters, we can text someone in seconds. Instead of going to the movie theater, we can stream near infinite movies at home.
But patience becomes scarce as we lose touch with delayed gratification, leaving us ultimately unfulfilled.
Each time we give in to our impulses, it reinforces our brain pathways making us more and more impulsive over time. We can get a powerful dopamine rush even thinking about giving into these impulses, such as when a food addict drives by his favorite restaurant.
Think about the activities you do in your spare time. You can tell if it’s something that brings temporary gratification instead of joy by paying attention to the fruits of your labor.
If your activity bears no fruit, it’s the type of gratification that will bring no joy in the long run and lead you nowhere. That’s not to say every activity you do has to bear fruit, but most people have a hard time finding a good balance. Myself included.
So ask yourself if you derive joy–real, actual joy–from the activities you do each day, and it should get you on the right path.
Nick Enlowe 