Page 113 - Hard Goals

104 HARD Goals

were almost twice as likely not to change their diet and exercise
when they were diagnosed with hypertension.
Bottom line: if you heavily discount the future (you value
the present a lot more than the future), you’re a lot less likely
to be moved by the prospect of achieving great results in the
future. I could tell you that following your doctor’s orders and
treating your high blood pressure will add time to your life. But
if you don’t value that future time very much (if you discount it
heavily), you’re not likely to be swayed by my argument.
You might be tempted to think that this only applies to goals
where you pay a price right now (like taking blood pressure
medication, exercising, or giving up chocolate cake) and you
don’t get any benefi ts until much later (like good health, skinny
jeans, and the like). But it turns out it’s not just diffi cult goals
that get heavily discounted. The problem of future discounting
also hurts enjoyable experiences.
In a terrifi c study on sightseeing, researchers at UCLA and
UC San Diego surveyed people who either lived in or were visit-
5
ing Chicago, London, or Dallas. The study asked a series of
questions, such as how long the person had been in that city
and which major landmarks he or she had visited. Among the
fi ndings were that the average two-week visitor visits 4.4 land-
marks, while the average resident living in the city for up to one
year only sees 3.1 landmarks. In other words, brief tourists see
about 42 percent more landmarks than residents do. Addition-
ally, the average three-week visitor sees 5.5 landmarks, which
is 17 percent more than the 4.7 landmarks visited by residents
who have lived in that city for three or more years.
What was even more amazing was that for residents, 60
percent of their visits to major local landmarks happened with
out-of-town guests. So even the visits they did make were largely
driven by brief tourists. (I can personally relate to this last point.