After decades of ignoring my skin, the consequences finally came as I went into middle age: melasma, hyperpigmentation, and the like. My dermatologist prescribed a couple of remedies, one of which was Tretinoin cream. The instructions were to apply it daily in the evening, so that’s what I did. After four days, I began to feel like my entire face was on fire.
When researching for side effects, I realized why Tretinoin is still a prescription medicine rather than just an over the counter cream. It works on the cellular level, boosting collagen production and skin cell turnover. If used incorrectly, it causes severe skin irritation, and can lead to chemical burns as your cells purge itself quicker than normal.
Changing my routine to just applying it once every 3 days eliminated the burning sensation altogether. However, by not applying it as often, this also significantly delayed the potential results by months.
Ok, so a bit of an interesting story, but what does this skin cream have to do with anything?
Impatience
People have a tendency to want immediate gratification. This is why the lottery, gambling, and investment scams are prevalent throughout human history. It is very satisfying to gain something that took little to no effort. This is what a win feels like.
The Tretinoin example highlights the danger of this thinking. By being impatient of the outcome, you eventually cause more harm to the skin than good. No pain, no gain does not apply in this case! Once your skin is irritated you will need to stop applying the cream (and potentially other medication as well) while your skin recovers. So in essence, your skin is worse than when you started, and you cannot even use medication which further slows down your progress.
Doesn’t sound like a win to me at all.
If you want to be strong, can you go to the gym and squat your body weight on your first day? Well, you can try, but it will not end well. Ego lifting satisfies the ego, but you go to the gym to destroy your ego, not satisfy it. Ego lifting often leads to injury, and you will not be able to go to the gym for a long time while you recover. Exactly the same concept.
If you want to be rich, do you chase all available investments offered to you, so you have more chances of winning? This sounds more like a recipe towards bankruptcy than riches. There is a reason for the saying, “fast money goes quick“, and why up to 70% of lottery winners go broke within three to five years.
When you want someone to love you, you push them even further away by smothering them with affection. You get the opposite result from what you expect.
You get the point.
Systems
The better way to look at it is not on how to obtain the results I want as soon as I can, but:
How can I make this a constant part of my life?
To achieve the outcome you want, the components must first be integrated as part of your system. In the Tretinoin example, the system is that I will apply it once every three days. And this is not just for a while, my intent is it will be like this forever. This method offers several advantages:
- It is easy to do and remember, and less rigid than a daily routine. Skipping a day is not a big deal, so going back to the routine is easier.
- Effectively eliminates the side effects, as you are doing a smaller dosage per week. The process is not disrupted.
- Harder to focus on the outcome, because it is a slow process by design.
Tretinoin is a slow medicine, not a magic bullet. And this concept goes beyond this skin cream. A popular passage from the book Atomic Habits is:
You do not rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.
James Clear, Atomic Habits
If you want to be stronger, you start with dumbbells first, then move on to the barbell bar (no weights), then progressively adding a few kilos every few weeks. This is a slow and steady process that doesn’t seem to do anything in the first weeks or months, but leads to great results after years of consistency. By not chasing gains in a small period of time, you prevent or eliminate the risk of injury. No injury means you will be able to train more. The simple process feeds on itself. This is like time in the market beats timing the market, but applied to fitness.
Same with finances, as real wealth is achieved by compounding, not by fast money. Implement boring habits, like automatically allocating a percentage of your income to savings and investments, and using simple tools like index funds. The simpler and more boring the system is, the less likely you will crash and burn trying to chase the next big return.
Letting Go
A friend of mine asked me for advice once, and said that he cannot do anything because he has no willpower or motivation. My answer was: you had it backwards. The willpower and motivation comes after doing something, not before it. This seems counterintuitive, but is precisely the reason why establishing your life’s systems are crucial.
You cannot rely on willpower and motivation alone to go through life, since both ebb and flow depending on the time and the day. You are essentially building on top of something that is unstable. Small habits that eventually become your system is the only reliable way to progress. The power of this system is because you take your own mind out of the equation.
You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions.
Bhagavad Gita
When you lift heavy weights in the gym, are you expecting your strength to show up immediately? Of course not. Starting a healthy diet today does not result in weight loss in weeks, or even months. Investing modest amounts does not seem to move the needle when compared to the previous month.
This is the reason many people give up prematurely. They focus on the outcome. When the goal seems too far to reach, they decide, “what’s the point of suffering over this“, and then stop.
Once you establish your habits and your system, it is time to let go. As the above quote says, we are not guaranteed results, but we are entitled to do the work. The work itself is the reward, and the more you let go of the notion of succeeding, and instead just enjoy the process, the more likely you will achieve your desired outcome.
Build your habits, do the work, ignore the results.
So this is why I will continue to apply Tretinoin only a few days per week. After a few weeks of doing this, did I see any improvement? Maybe, maybe not. The correct answer is, who cares?
Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán