Stop Robbing The Bank

In this podcast lecture, we explore how to develop happiness life skills through hard work. Dr. Robert Puff shares that in our commitment to improving our life and becoming a happier, more peaceful person, the initial changes may be challenging to make. We're reminded that all our actions have consequences and we always have the power of choice.

Transcript

Welcome to the Happiness Podcast.

I'm Dr.

Robert Puff.

My guess is most of us listening to this podcast today haven't robbed a bank before.

Some of us may have,

But probably most of us haven't.

But the question is why?

I mean,

Most of us tend to like money.

We like what it brings.

And we like to think that we can get money very quickly.

And probably the quickest way to get money is by robbing a bank.

I mean,

We could try buying lotto tickets,

But there it's dealing more with probability.

And most likely,

No matter how many lottery tickets we buy,

We're probably never going to buy as much as if we robbed a bank.

We could rob a bank and walk away with say $50,

000 quick and easy.

I mean,

$50,

000 for something that probably would only take a few minutes,

Maybe an hour,

And then we'd have all that money to spend.

It would be great.

But why don't we do it?

I mean,

Obviously this is a rhetorical question.

We all know the answer.

We don't rob banks because it comes with lots and lots of consequences,

Very negative ones.

That one hour and that $50,

000 could put us behind bars for 20 years.

But people,

For the most part,

Tend to really like money.

So there's another way to make that much money actually in a day.

It's actually quite simple.

Just go to school for a very long time,

Come out,

Become a heart surgeon and get good at what you do.

And you'll probably make about $50,

000 a day.

Now mind you,

You have to be quite good at what you do.

You probably better be one of the best in your community,

If not the state,

Because the person that I'm referring to that makes that much is very good at what he does.

And he can do three heart surgeries in one day.

And in that amount of time,

The insurance companies will reimburse him up to $50,

000 in one day.

So if we're willing to risk 20 years in prison to rob a bank,

Which some people are,

Perhaps you may have tried it one time,

And yet we're not willing to spend say,

You know,

10 to 15 years to go to college and make that every day for the rest of our lives.

Why is that?

I mean,

It seems simple.

Just go to school,

Do well in school,

Get good at your trade.

And if you get really good at it,

You can make $50,

000 in a day and you never have to go to prison.

And you can make that every day for the rest of your life.

Now of course,

These are two extreme cases.

And in both cases we tend not to do either because both of them have a lot of consequences with them.

The first one,

Again,

Is facing 20 years in prison,

If not more.

The other one is years and years of schooling.

That's grueling,

That's exhausting.

And we may not want to do that one either.

Because today what I want to focus in on is human behavior.

When we understand human behavior,

We can begin to change it.

But if we don't understand it,

We're probably just going to end up as happy or unhappy as our family is or was.

Because we really tend to be creatures of habit.

And even though we know there can be pretty high consequences to what we're doing,

Like robbing a bank,

We may continue to do it because we just don't,

End quote,

Feel like doing something else.

And that end quote,

Feel like doing something else can really cause us a great deal of suffering.

So though we may never rob a bank,

We're doing other things that are much like bank robbery.

Let me explain.

If we've lived long enough on our planet,

We've probably heard that exercise is good for our body and eating organic fruits and vegetables is good for us too.

Not that we have to eat them exclusively,

But we should have a lot of dark greens in our diet and a lot of fruit and just eat well and exercise and keep our bodies moving.

This is a really good way to live our lives.

But what happens?

We come home after a long day,

Whether it's school or work,

And we're tired and we think about,

Okay,

Do I want to go in the kitchen or go to the store and have a salad?

Or do I want to just come home and get some fast food and eat that?

Or maybe if it's a really bad day,

A really big bowl of ice cream with chocolate cake sounds great.

So in the short term,

It's not a big deal,

But in the long term,

It's much like robbing the bank.

What will happen is with time,

We may like robbing the bank,

Sometimes get away with it and we don't get caught.

We have that $50,

000 to spend any way we want.

It's great.

But sooner or later,

The police catch us and we go to prison for that 20 years.

It's kind of the same way with a lot of choices that we make.

When we're young,

We can do so many different things with no consequences at all.

We can smoke,

We can drink heavily,

We can eat horrible food and really not feel anything.

But if we keep doing that with time,

The police officers are going to come and put us in that metaphorical prison of poor choices with consequences.

Because for a lot of us,

Robbing the bank is just easier.

You come home,

It's a long day and opening up a bottle of wine,

Sitting in front of the television and just relaxing sounds a lot better than putting on the gym clothes and going to a yoga class.

But I want us to be careful and not be judgmental of ourselves.

I want us to understand that people are just habitual people.

We have habits and we just keep doing what we're doing.

I don't think many of us could imagine a bank robber applying to medical school and say,

I'm going to do that instead.

But also,

Could you imagine a heart surgeon saying,

I'm going to go rob a bank today because that sounds a lot easier than doing a few heart surgeries today.

I mean,

We couldn't even imagine that,

Correct?

So in regards to happiness,

It's really the same principles.

Happiness takes work.

And if we're not doing things to make our lives happy,

To make our lives beautiful,

To be creating inner peace and tranquility on a regular basis,

Then we're not going to find that.

And we're going to just keep doing what we're doing.

But also,

Robbing the bank in the short term is easier.

Having that fast food take home order every day may be easier than putting together a smoothie,

A green smoothie and starting to drink that every day.

It's just easier.

So in life,

When we have to do something that's hard that we haven't been doing,

Initially it's going to take effort.

We're going to have to put forth effort and make changes in our life.

And we're not going to feel good doing it.

We're just not.

And so what we have to do is say,

Okay,

I'm really committed towards improving my life.

I am,

I'm going to make changes.

But in order to do that,

I know initially this is going to be hard.

It's going to be challenging.

It's going to be difficult.

I get that.

So I'm going to start making these changes,

Improving my life.

And with time,

Things will get better.

I will become a happier,

More peaceful person.

There's just no way I couldn't because I'm doing things that create that.

I mean,

It's the way life works.

If we,

After work,

Come home every day and work out versus we come home every day and have a bottle of wine in five to 10 years,

These two people are going to look very different.

We know that because there's just consequences to our choices.

And what we have here on the happiness podcast are very specific steps to improve our lives.

There are so many episodes now available on ways to improve our lives,

But we're going to have to do them and we're going to have to be uncomfortable,

Which means we're not going to rob the banks anymore.

If we stop doing that,

Then we don't get the consequences of robbing the bank.

And we begin to get the consequences of happiness and peace because now we're doing things to make our lives better.

Even though initially it can be quite hard.

It's hard because we're doing something different.

Whenever we do something different,

Initially it's always hard.

When I grew up,

Some friends of ours had horses and I wasn't that experienced riding horses.

And the first few days when we went to their house and rode horses,

I was sore.

I mean,

My tush was just sore.

But with time,

As I kept going back there and learning how to ride horses,

I got used to it.

We do get used to things,

But at first it can seem worse before it gets better.

One of our listeners sent me a great question.

Her name is Christian and she writes,

Do we have to accept that it's going to get worse before it gets better?

Is it normal to experience this feeling of being stuck in between the past that has not died yet and the future or the present,

I guess,

That has not come yet?

And if it is,

What can we do to cope with these difficulties as best we can?

Well,

The answer is actually very simple.

Yes.

Anytime we learn something new,

It is hard and we make it worse before we get better.

So initially,

Yes,

It may seem quite hard,

But if we stick with it,

What will happen is we get the benefits of it.

If we go the short term example of,

Well,

This is easy.

I'm just going to do what's easy.

Then there's consequences like robbing the bank.

There are a lot of consequences to robbing the bank.

Most of us will never do that.

But are we doing it in other ways?

Are we doing things that keep sabotaging our lives?

For example,

Relationships are a big part of being happy,

But let's say we don't like being alone.

So the second we find that our relationship with the person we're with is going to end,

We quickly find someone else to replace them.

I mean,

I know if we do that,

We're not going to find the best person on the planet to spend our lives with.

We're going to settle and the settling is going to lead to unhappiness.

So as we navigate our life's course,

It can be hard at first.

It can be quite hard.

It probably will be,

But with time we get used to things.

We really do.

And really,

Whether it's good or bad,

I mean,

If you think about bank robbers,

Often the second they get out of jail,

They're off doing it again,

Stealing again.

Not all,

Of course,

Many of them make changes in their lives,

Which is wonderful,

But habits are habits.

And think about the heart surgeon.

A really good heart surgeon might make in a month what we make in a year,

But how many heart surgeons do you know that take off 11 months a year?

Not very many,

Probably none.

Habits are just habits,

But bad habits are a lot easier to do than good habits,

Habits that are good for us.

For example,

Why don't most people,

When they get older,

Work out?

I mean,

They'd be in such better shape and eat well.

They just feel so much better.

But instead,

How many people do you see that are older that are in great shape?

I mean,

If they are,

They often are on the cover of some magazine because it's so astonishingly unique.

And my guess is there's probably a lot more people in prison for robbing a bank than there are heart surgeons in the world.

It's just because it's easier.

Now,

We're not going to choose the path of robbing a bank,

Of course,

But are we subtly making choices every day that are leading towards our unhappiness,

Our lack of equanimity and peace in our lives?

Because in many ways,

Higher level or the highest level of peace and happiness is much like becoming a heart surgeon.

It takes work,

It takes discipline,

And we have to be pretty vigilant about it.

I mean,

Everything that we think affects the way we feel.

So that means we have to watch throughout the day what we're thinking about ourselves,

What we're thinking about others,

What we're doing,

What we're exposing ourselves to.

Everything matters in regards to happiness.

That's why there's so many episodes here to learn about them.

But once we learn them,

We have to implement them.

Knowledge is superfluous unless we use it.

I mean,

We all know,

All of us have been trained over and over again for years when we were in school about the dangers of becoming addicted to alcohol or drugs.

We've been taught it in so many ways,

And yet there are millions of people around the world that are addicted.

You may know people,

You may be one of them.

So knowledge in and of itself is not enough.

And when we decide to start improving our lives,

Like let's say we are addicted to alcohol and we decide to stop,

It's not going to be easy at first.

It's going to be really hard.

And it's like that.

But if we want to have a life that is beautiful,

The great news is there's only one person on the planet that keeps us from that.

And that's ourselves.

It's just not doing the things that create peace and happiness in our lives.

But when we start doing these things,

We will find them,

Period.

That's the great news.

All of us can have beautiful lives.

I say it,

I think on every podcast we can,

But to create this peace and happiness,

To create this beautiful life one day at a time,

We have to stop robbing the bank and we need to do it every day.

And it's going to be hard at times.

It gets easier of course with time,

But initially it is going to be hard.

So let's commit to really working on stop robbing the bank and work towards having beautiful lives,

Period.

No matter what we can all do it.

It does take work.

It does take effort,

But I believe that's why we're here on planet earth to put forth that effort,

To put forth that work.

And when we do,

We are going to be rewarded for that effort.

And it's going to be something that no one and nothing can take away from us because happiness is always there.

It's just robbing the bank is keeping us from experiencing it.

Thank you for joining me on the happiness podcast.

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Org.

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Org.

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Accept what is love what is.

Reviews

Great analogy..worth remembering when we choose depleting habits. Thanks

Helpful suggestions. I always appreciate the insight from Dr. Puff.

Thank you Dr Puff for your light hearted positive energy! You are an inspiration! It’s great to have your enthusiasm for serious matters of the heart! Happiness is so important and there are more people that need to really listen and understand your message!

Excellent advice as always! Much to think about as I often feel depleted. Thank you!!

This podcast helps feed my mind the positive food it needs everyday.