Page 123 - Hard Goals

114 HARD Goals

Trick 4: Minimize Your Costs
Of course, it’s always good if you can just get your brain to stop
perseverating about all the costs you’re going to incur to achieve a
goal. But turning off your brain is hard to do. Quick, don’t think
about a pink elephant—whatever you do, don’t you dare pic-
ture a pink elephant standing in the middle of your room! Hard,
right? Think of it like this: I don’t particularly like heights, so if I
were high up on a ledge, I really wouldn’t want to look down. But
if someone says to me, “Don’t look down,” of course I’m going
to look down. Why? Because before I can negate a thought (do
not look down), I fi rst have to access that thought (look down).
So I think, Look down, no wait, I’m supposed to negate that
thought, crap, it’s too late, I just looked down . . . Arrggh!
I’m not going to tell you to try and deny that your goals have
some associated costs (I’ll never tell you not to look down). Instead,
I’m going to tell you to “look up”—to take your costs and recast

every one of them as a benefit. Let’s start simply with the diet goal,
which on some level most of us can connect with. Say tonight
you’re going out to dinner, and you make a resolve to forgo the
molten chocolate cake. What are the costs of that? One easy cost is
that you have to formally turn away the cake; you have to incur the
emotional pain of saying no. Now, does that cost have any upside?

Is there any way you can benefit from this act of saying no?
Well, if it were me, here’s what I’d say. First, passing on the
cake shows I’ve got mental toughness. I read an interview with
Lance Armstrong a while back in which he basically said he
loves it when the ride turns tough. When it’s a festival of pain
he’s going to win every time because he’s tougher, with a better
tolerance for pain than anyone else. So I’m kind of like Lance
Armstrong here, and how cool is that?
Another benefi t is that this proves that I am totally com-
mitted to my weight-loss goal. Turning down the cake shows