403. How to do hard things (using psychology)
The Psychology of your 20s
iHeartPodcasts
4.8 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The best things in life aren't always the easiest and it's often this exertion and extra effort that holds us back from diving in or fully committing. Whether it's a new routine, an ambitious study schedule or workout plan, knowing how we can use psychology and neuroscience to make hard tasks easier is incredibly valuable. In today's episode we discuss:
• The 5 minute rule
• The power of a persona
• Using mental imagery and visualisation to do hard things
• The power of learned industriousness
• The 3 forms of motivation to know and implement
This episode will make all the hard things you've been putting off infinitely easier. Listen now!
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The Psychology of your 20s is not a substitute for professional mental health help. If you are struggling, distressed or require personalised advice, please reach out to your doctor or a licensed psychologist.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everybody, I'm Jemma Spake and welcome back to the psychology of your 20s, the podcast where we talk through the biggest changes, moments and transitions of our 20s and what they mean for our psychology. |
| 0:24.0 | Hello, everybody. |
| 0:25.4 | Welcome back to the show. |
| 0:27.1 | Welcome back to the podcast. |
| 0:29.3 | New listeners, old listeners, |
| 0:31.3 | wherever you are in the world. |
| 0:32.3 | You guys know the deal. |
| 0:33.4 | It is so great to have you here back for another episode |
| 0:37.0 | as we, of course course break down the psychology |
| 0:40.4 | of our 20s. There is a very famous saying, at least I think it's famous, that if it was easy, |
| 0:48.2 | everybody would be doing it. And when I was in university, I used to have that printed out on |
| 0:54.0 | like a piece of paper. |
| 0:55.0 | I think I even wrote it out. |
| 0:56.5 | And I had it blue-tacked on my wall above my desk. |
| 0:59.4 | And when I was studying for exams, when I was working through assignments, it was kind of like my go-to phrase for motivation to like embrace the hard stuff, to appreciate that hard things bring about the best rewards, |
| 1:13.6 | that kind of gist. However, as I have gotten older and I was thinking about that quote the other day, |
| 1:18.6 | and this is what has inspired that episode, as I've gotten older, I've sort of revised my thinking |
| 1:25.3 | around this. You know, yes, definitely. Some of the best things in life do |
| 1:30.0 | demand a lot of our effort, time, energy, attention. But does that necessarily mean that they need |
| 1:36.9 | to be unenjoyable or difficult? Does it always have to be such like a mental slug? I think those words and like concepts |
| 1:47.8 | tend to get all melted together when we talk about doing hard things. We imagine that they |
| 1:55.1 | have to be almost painful. I also think, you know, with that quote, there is also this |
... |
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