Reality Testing – One Path To Truth

It took me three times until I realized sprinting full speed hitting my head against a wall was causing the headache

I was overweight growing up. Adding extra pounds on the scale doesn't add to your self-esteem, unfortunately. Otherwise I would've been one of the most confident people on the planet. It's the opposite. The more space your well-girthed physique takes up, the more you want to shrink. So the goal was clear: lose weight.

Easier said than done.

I've tried every single method out there. I didn't go as far as eating according to the moon phases, but everything else was fair game. Nothing worked. But man did it give me a good feeling when I gorged on celery with a glass of water as a side dish.

Until it didn't, because I failed miserably. I was back eating crap in no-time. All these over-the-top methods are unsustainable. You might see the scale change, but you can't keep up these extremes.

Even though we're drowning in information, it seems rationality has taken a back seat. Quick fixes are more attractive than the path yielding results, because the latter needs effort. But this kind of path is also the one leading you to your goal. I think most people know that's the case. Yet the voice in your head is so persuasive when it comes to taking shortcuts.

"The last radish-only diet didn't work, but this carnivore diet will do the trick!"

And it works. For a while. Until it doesn't anymore. Instead of criticizing the method of some ripped health oracle from the internet, we criticize ourselves. Surely we must've done the method wrong or didn't have enough willpower. So, after having failed miserably, we keep going, because we're already invested in the chosen method. We wash away the big mac sauce from our lips and go on the juice diet once again.

It's the human equivalent of the sunken cost fallacy from economics. If there was prior investment into a project and all the heavens and hells point to the fact that the project is doomed, people still tend to invest more in it, because they're also emotionally bound by their past decisions. Even though admitting a past error and correcting it would put them on a better future trajectory, it's emotionally too painful. So they stay on their course, sailing the ship to their doom rather than turning the helm.

Luckily, it's easy to recalibrate the compass to your advantage. For me, it all changed when I did one thing: accept reality.

I looked in the mirror and was honest with myself. I didn't want to look like that my whole life. That helped me discard all the quick-fix methods I've tried before, and start with the fundamentals. In other words, I went back to first principles.

Whatever some fitness guru may tell you, it's not extreme diets and ice baths that will melt fat. Just answer this one question: "Is your caloric intake lower than your baseline caloric need plus exercise? Yes? Congratulations, you're going to lose weight.

But weight loss is only one example. You can use this approach for anything else in life as well.

It's about experimentation. About approaching your problem like a scientist: come up with a hypothesis, test it, gather data. If the data supports your hypothesis, congratulations! If not, that's phenomenal as well, because now you know what method not to use. Failure shouldn't paint your hopes black, but instead be a call back to the drawing board. Adjust your hypothesis, go again. With this approach, somewhere down the line, you will find the solution you were looking for.

In its essence, your approach must change reality according to your goals. If not, course-correct. Otherwise, it's just a failure to see reality, blinded by the need for feeling good.

Funnily enough, the pain I was so scared to face lasted for mere seconds. Afterward, not motivation, but determination took its place. Some part of your unconscious knows the truth. It also knows when you've finally had the guts to accept it. That's when it feels like the wind blows in your favor, leading you to your goal in record-time.

Don't get a concussion like me from banging my head against a wall, trying out quick fix after quick fix. Find something that really works, then stick to it. Your life will change, and you will thank yourself for it.