The Rewards of Physical Challenges

There is a big subconscious reward to running, hiking, or any type of exercise that gets you moving and similarly a lack of subconscious reward for completing work at a computer.

Sitting at a computer for 10 hours a day and never exercising is a recipe for depression, no matter how productive you are. Our bodies are hardwired to reward us for completing physical challenges.

Our reward systems haven’t evolved for the internet age, so we have to check our feelings of accomplishment against the reality of what we are accomplishing.

We have to remind ourselves that some of our feelings of accomplishment from physical tasks aren’t actually in line with what we’ve accomplished. And sometimes when you feel you haven’t accomplished anything at your computer, you’ve actually been very productive.