Temptation bundling ¹ is a term coined by University of Pennsylvania’s behavior researcher Katherine Milkman and her colleagues in a 2014 study. Here’s how it works: Basically, you “bundle” a source of instant gratification (like checking Instagram or watching an addictive show) with a beneficial but less fun “should” activity (like running on the treadmill or working on a spreadsheet). In Milkman’s study, the researchers gave participants iPods with four audio novels they wanted to listen to — but they could only access the iPod while working out. By and large, the participants’ gym attendance increased when an indulgence was tied to it. 

In their research, Dr. Milkman and her colleagues measured the impact of bundling instantly gratifying but guilt-inducing “want” experiences (enjoying page-turner audiobooks) with valuable “should” behaviors providing delayed rewards (exercising).  Initially, full and intermediate treatment participants visited the gym 51% and 29% more frequently, respectively, than control participants, but treatment effects declined over time (particularly following Thanksgiving). After the study, 61% of participants opted to pay to have gym-only access to iPods containing tempting audiobooks, suggesting demand for this commitment device.

I have always loved watching basketball as I love the game. I started watching NBA basketball around 1994/1995 as a kid who was intrigued by my fellow countryman Hakeem Olajuwon leading the Houston Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships. I followed Michael Jordan’s second run of winning his last three rings with the Chicago Bulls and I had some late nights watching the Bulls play Malone-led Utah Jazz team in the 1997/1998 season. Watching the Netflix miniseries, the last dance during the COVID-19 pandemic brought back some childhood memories as I was following some of the events in the series as a kid.

One of the most exciting things that I do on a daily basis is to exercise and improve in the process. I cross-train, the action or practice of engaging in two or more sports or types of exercise in order to improve fitness or performance in one’s main sport. I practice the following sports activities: Basketball, running, weightlifting, swimming, pickleball, badminton, cycling, tennis, volleyball and badminton. Apart from the fitness and movement goal, I try to stay consistent with practicing each sport as it is a medium for improving daily. For example, I start my daily exercise routine with shooting basketball drills and the more I shoot, the more I know I can get better.

You are doing the best you can based on your present level of awareness, be gentle on yourself: You are doing your best with the resources you have. If you cannot forgive yourself for your past mistakes and transgressions, it is going to be hard to forgive others if you don’t forgive yourself. We are often hard on ourselves for our past mistakes and errors, we forget that we are human sometimes. We even find it easier to forgive others than to forgive ourselves. Everyone’s life is different, and we are all doing our best. “Our best” today may not be “the best there is,” but it’s the best we can do today. Which is strange. And yet true. And could draw us down into helplessness and isolation if we don’t stay anchored. And the way we stay anchored is with gratitude. ¹

I first got exposed to the concept of the mastermind from reading the classic book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. He describes the mastermind as the “Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.” In the past couple of years, I tried forming a mastermind with some friends but we were not able to stay consistent with it as life happened to us all. I have recently been exploring and seeing firsthand the power of the mastermind in my goal-setting journey.