The PIG :  The Problem of Immediate Gratification is a cute name for a primary cause of Incentive Use Disorders.  The relationship between the immediacy of the payoff and its power to influence state dependent phenomena is hyperbolic.  When the incentive is nearby it has a much greater influence on your perception, motivation and response tendencies than you would predict when it is far away.   Please click here for a more detailed discussion of the PIG.

If you are vulnerable to the PIG it is important to develop, in advance, how you intend to respond during the close encounters that await you.  The story of how Odysseus responded to temptation provides a metaphor that can help you plan how you will cope with local temptations.  Click here for several experiential invitations to facilitate the emergence of your core motivation into consciousness, to make clear the conflict between the pull of local stressors and temptations and your core motivation. 

Perverse Motivation : Some people knowingly act counter to their own interests. What causes them to act so perversely? The Imp of the Perverse describes some of the principles of counter-regulatory motivation and presents examples.

The desire to rebel against rules motivates an individual to act counter to his or her core motivation.  If you are vulnerable to counter-regulatory motivation, revisit the contemplation exercises often to keep your core motivation in the forefront of your attention.

The Karma of Behaving Badly : The natural consequence of exercising bad habits is that they become easier to perform. Once you have developed an autonomous behavior sequence, it is difficult to change your ways—for example, it is more difficult to learn to stop at a green light after you have already learned to stop at a red light. Please click here for a more detailed review of this problem.

Changing your Karma involves modifying your path of least resistance.  Helping you to transform your path of greatest advantage into your default path is the objective of this kit. Please visit Strategies to explore ways of approaching this task and Tactics for help with developing specific methods to cope with crises of stress and temptation.

Attachment to Outcomes : Individuals with low self-efficacy are particularly desperate for validation by good outcome and so are particularly vulnerable to emotional reactions when they don't get what they want, and when they do. Please click here for more on this topic.

Attachment to outcomes increases emotionality, and thereby disrupts performance. In the words of a prescient teenager, "if you let your happiness or unhappiness depend on something you don't control, you're screwed."  Success and failure are important, but allowing your attention to focus on success and failure impairs good performance.  The ancients understood this problem and developed disciplines that can free the Psyche. The Enlightened Path describes the recommended perspective to a long-term challenge that may not always go your way.  The goal is good long-term outcome and achieving that requires good performance on your part. 

Recursive Traps : There is often a reciprocal relationship between incentive use and emotional distress in that each amplifies the other. Please click here to learn more about positive feedback and addictive traps.

As you might suspect, escaping a recursive trap can be tricky.  Please click here for trance formative methods and exercises to help you escape recursive traps.

Dependence : Freedom from dependence is the outcome of  developing the procedural skills required to exercise your will.  This kit contains information and tools that will help you complete the developmental passage from dependence to self-determination.

No one can tell you the truth about what you really want and what you are willing to do to get it; you have to discover the answers for yourself.  To supplement the general contemplation exercises, Ask Alice and The Dickensian Exercise will give you an opportunity to explore your truths and core motivations. Are you ready to change? Please click here to research readiness for change in general and yours in particular.