I have the feeling that there’s a cycle most non-overachiever get stuck into, when buying in to this whole “no pain no gain” nonsense. Pain and exhausting oneself would lead people to distance themselves from whatever they are attempting. In those case where people can’t just give up on something (for example, university students can’t just choose to drop their studies without facing some serious negative emotions), the pain causes them to slack and then, when they try to catch up with the time loss, they try to reproduce the classic “training from hell” popular in anime applied to studying.
“See, if I’m struggling to keep awake, I’m at the tenth coffee cup, it’s four a.m. and my eyes hurt like hell, it means I’m surely learning a lot, since I’m in so much pain...” and since the last study session was that unpleasant, the cycle just goes on and on...
“This can’t be true, or else all my suffering would have been pointless!” People like very much to ascribe meaning to suffering.
I think this is mainly cognitive dissonance at work, trying to send away the discomfort. You might get some insight reading about it, if you aren’t familiar with the process already.
I have the feeling that there’s a cycle most non-overachiever get stuck into, when buying in to this whole “no pain no gain” nonsense. Pain and exhausting oneself would lead people to distance themselves from whatever they are attempting. In those case where people can’t just give up on something (for example, university students can’t just choose to drop their studies without facing some serious negative emotions), the pain causes them to slack and then, when they try to catch up with the time loss, they try to reproduce the classic “training from hell” popular in anime applied to studying.
“See, if I’m struggling to keep awake, I’m at the tenth coffee cup, it’s four a.m. and my eyes hurt like hell, it means I’m surely learning a lot, since I’m in so much pain...” and since the last study session was that unpleasant, the cycle just goes on and on...
I think this is mainly cognitive dissonance at work, trying to send away the discomfort. You might get some insight reading about it, if you aren’t familiar with the process already.