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My experience managing my own procrastination for years makes me think this could be true. I go to the gym to avoid cleaning my aquarium, I'll rewrite a softw

by dade_ 8y ago

My experience managing my own procrastination for years makes me think this could be true. I go to the gym to avoid cleaning my aquarium, I'll rewrite a software module for a personal project to avoid some undesirable work. The avoiding activity doesn't seem to take any willpower, but does when they become the avoided activity. Last winter I didn't go on vacation, but took 2 weeks off to catch up on personal projects and training, etc and what I realized is that those side projects require more than full time hours. As the story about the wine drinking lawyer in the blog post, maybe the problem is we don't really appreciate how much stress we are under. It causes anxiety that makes it extremely difficult to act.

snarf21 8y ago
Right, stress is another way to say it. I read some other article in the past that had some magic solution to willpower. It was 'remove all stress from your life'. I see stress as a willpower depleter. It is easy to chose a salad for dinner after an awesome day. It is hard to not eat junk for lunch after a super stressful morning at work.
WhompingWindows 8y ago
I'm also against the idea of willpower in general. All of the people I know with the most "willpower" are just those with great habits; they're not actually exercising willpower 95% of the time we think they are. They're just doing their regular routine and they didn't have to act contrary to our perception of their wants/needs. Some podcast I was listening to had an Olympic athlete on it, they asked her how she avoided slipping up on dietary things like birthday cake, free pizza, etc. She said she doesn't use willpower, she just has a couple bites only. It's this rule she lives by, no stress, no anxiety, just a couple bites and that's it. I guess I'll follow her lead and take a couple of bites out of this SQL task...
- matwood 8y ago
  > All of the people I know with the most "willpower" are just those with great habits; they're not actually exercising willpower 95% of the time we think they are. Exactly. Willpower and motivation are fleeting. Real change comes from building habits with self-discipline. This is also why when I want to make a change I do it every day and/or on a very fixed schedule. People ask how I get up every morning at 6am and workout. I have been doing it for so long I don't really have an answer. It is just what I do. Do I always want to get up and workout? Not really, but what I want doesn't matter. I get up and do it anyways.
  - ohaideredevs 8y ago
    "Do I always want to get up and workout? Not really, but what I want doesn't matter. I get up and do it anyways." That's because it's a habit. We are both conditioned chimps. Working out takes NO willpower for us.
    - matwood 8y ago
      Yes. It's just self-discipline at this point. I find habits and self-discipline to be closely related. Where willpower/motivation does come into play is the formation of self-discipline and habits. People often need that spark to get started. Look at someone like Goggins with insane self-discipline now, but if you listen to his story it took some very low moments for him to find that initial motivation.
- ohaideredevs 8y ago
  A habit, once formed, takes no willpower. That doesn't mean that willpower isn't important. A person with good habits but no willpower will have trouble adapting.

by dade_ 8y ago

snarf21 8y ago

Right, stress is another way to say it. I read some other article in the past that had some magic solution to willpower. It was 'remove all stress from your life'. I see stress as a willpower depleter. It is easy to chose a salad for dinner after an awesome day. It is hard to not eat junk for lunch after a super stressful morning at work.

WhompingWindows 8y ago

I'm also against the idea of willpower in general. All of the people I know with the most "willpower" are just those with great habits; they're not actually exercising willpower 95% of the time we think they are. They're just doing their regular routine and they didn't have to act contrary to our perception of their wants/needs. Some podcast I was listening to had an Olympic athlete on it, they asked her how she avoided slipping up on dietary things like birthday cake, free pizza, etc. She said she doesn't use willpower, she just has a couple bites only. It's this rule she lives by, no stress, no anxiety, just a couple bites and that's it. I guess I'll follow her lead and take a couple of bites out of this SQL task...

matwood 8y ago
> All of the people I know with the most "willpower" are just those with great habits; they're not actually exercising willpower 95% of the time we think they are. Exactly. Willpower and motivation are fleeting. Real change comes from building habits with self-discipline. This is also why when I want to make a change I do it every day and/or on a very fixed schedule. People ask how I get up every morning at 6am and workout. I have been doing it for so long I don't really have an answer. It is just what I do. Do I always want to get up and workout? Not really, but what I want doesn't matter. I get up and do it anyways.
- ohaideredevs 8y ago
  "Do I always want to get up and workout? Not really, but what I want doesn't matter. I get up and do it anyways." That's because it's a habit. We are both conditioned chimps. Working out takes NO willpower for us.
  - matwood 8y ago
    Yes. It's just self-discipline at this point. I find habits and self-discipline to be closely related. Where willpower/motivation does come into play is the formation of self-discipline and habits. People often need that spark to get started. Look at someone like Goggins with insane self-discipline now, but if you listen to his story it took some very low moments for him to find that initial motivation.
ohaideredevs 8y ago
A habit, once formed, takes no willpower. That doesn't mean that willpower isn't important. A person with good habits but no willpower will have trouble adapting.