There’s a proverb I learned as a young boy, which roughly translates to, “Bitter first, sweet later.” (“先苦後甜.”) Do the difficult things first, and you’ll have a chance to enjoy yourself later. It conveyed the value of delayed gratification.

For the most part, it worked for me—although there are some wrinkles I have needed to iron out. For example, I experience an inclination to push.

Here’s something I might say to myself, “You can eat lunch after you finish this blog post or piece of writing.” 

Writing on an empty stomach may work for other people, but it doesn’t work for me. Everything feels bad, and the hunger grows stronger and becomes distracting. So for me, it’s an entirely unreasonable bargain.

So instead, I’ve learned to get up and eat, and then get back to work. It requires less effort, and things feel better again—much less bitter than it would have if I didn’t eat.

I’ve found this to be the case with many aspects of my life. I usually don’t need to push nearly as hard as I think—so I should probably push less, and very lightly.