SUGAR 2
A bit of a follow-up to my previous post, "Sugar", in which I rambled
a bit on the subject of willpower and making positive changes in one's
life.
It's been going well. I haven't given in to sugary temptation yet!
Two things that occurred to me:
1. Decisions
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Another way of saying that I "believe" I need to avoid sugar is: I've
made up my mind. Or: I've made a decision.
There's an idea going around* that:
"Willpower is for people who are still uncertain about
what they want to do."
I think I really understand that now. And it makes sense if you be-
lieve that decision-making is a huge drain on willpower.[2]
If you've not made a definitive decision (or made up your mind, or
formed a belief), then you're going to have to continuously choose or
*decide* to do the right thing over and over again. The universe
says, "yum, thanks for all the willpower, it was delicious!"
Come to think of it, I guess I'm trying to believe/decide/make up my
mind in order to BECOME THE SORT OF PERSON WHO DOESN'T EAT SUGAR.
2. Habits
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I'm actually pretty good at *doing* new habits.
I didn't used to be. I was awful. That changed when I forced myself to
started my logging habit.[3]
Having that one success under my belt seemed to be the confidence
booster (or willpower muscle workout) I needed to get over the hump on
a lot of things.
Anyway, what I mean is that I'm actually far too hard on myself some-
times; I really am good at making changes when they require that I
*DO* a thing.
What I've had a much harder time doing is *NOT DOING* things.
I have a hard time *NOT* eating the wrong foods.
I have a hard time *NOT* staying up too late (and missing sleep).
It looks like I have two different strategies for those two chal-
lenges:
For the food (current target: sugar), I'm attempting to change myself
into one of those non-sugar-eating-people.
For the bedtime thing, my latest strategy is to turn the negative
"don't get distracted by bright screens and stay up late" into a posi-
tive "I WILL go to bed at a specific time."
Okay, that's all I've got for now. I'm getting dangerously close to
failing my bedtime resolution! Happy hacking, g0pherz!
Notes
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[1] The quote is apparently from a blogger who goes by the name of
"Helia", but I believe it's popularized by Benjamin Hardy and his book
"Willpower Doesn't Work", which I have not yet read.
[2] That idea comes from "Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human
Strength" by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney, which I have read. It
would be interesting to compare and contrast the two books. :-)
[3]
gopher://sdf.org/0/users/ratfactor/phlog/2018-08-10-The-Logging-
Habit