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Wow I don't understand how you can just change your personality in an instant. Maybe he has an easily 're-programmable' brain.

ctdonath 11y ago
Just do it. Nothing is stopping you other than your own will.
- pugio 11y ago
  And the billions+ of entrenched synapses that compose the sum total of your life to date. You can not just rewire yourself in a heartbeat, and injunctions to "just do it" are as misleading as they are unhelpful. You may will yourself to act in a different manner, but the will of a moment frequently exhausts itself, leaving the collection of rhythms and habits built into you over the years. Or, to put it differently, we all have an equilibrium, a norm we tends towards in the absence of persistent and sustained external stimuli. Your will is a small stimulus for change, and it works over weeks and months in a series of small nudges. You can change, in almost any way, but if you "just will yourself to do it", you'll most likely find yourself failing again and again, convinced that if you could only be (somehow) just a bit more stronger-willed, complete change is right around the corner. Perhaps you mean "Just do it – envision what you wish to become, work out the set of habits necessary to that new person, and slowly rework your present habits, one by one, (removing environmental triggers/cues to old habits, and redirecting their behavioral outcomes), until you've discarded or transformed the old set into the new. Nothing is stopping you other than [a clear goal, a choice, and steadily repeated applications of] your own will."
  - ctdonath 11y ago
    Like I said: just do it. You're agreeing with me. Yes, it's hard. So what if it's hard? It's a matter of second-by-second choices. Failed? ok, that's in the past. Might fail? ok, that's in the future. You're in the present. Just do it.
    - bbcbasic 11y ago
      Ok I am open minded. Today I will just do it and post back some results :-). And perhaps I should buy a certain brand of trainers?

ctdonath 11y ago

Just do it. Nothing is stopping you other than your own will.

pugio 11y ago
And the billions+ of entrenched synapses that compose the sum total of your life to date. You can not just rewire yourself in a heartbeat, and injunctions to "just do it" are as misleading as they are unhelpful. You may will yourself to act in a different manner, but the will of a moment frequently exhausts itself, leaving the collection of rhythms and habits built into you over the years. Or, to put it differently, we all have an equilibrium, a norm we tends towards in the absence of persistent and sustained external stimuli. Your will is a small stimulus for change, and it works over weeks and months in a series of small nudges. You can change, in almost any way, but if you "just will yourself to do it", you'll most likely find yourself failing again and again, convinced that if you could only be (somehow) just a bit more stronger-willed, complete change is right around the corner. Perhaps you mean "Just do it – envision what you wish to become, work out the set of habits necessary to that new person, and slowly rework your present habits, one by one, (removing environmental triggers/cues to old habits, and redirecting their behavioral outcomes), until you've discarded or transformed the old set into the new. Nothing is stopping you other than [a clear goal, a choice, and steadily repeated applications of] your own will."
- ctdonath 11y ago
  Like I said: just do it. You're agreeing with me. Yes, it's hard. So what if it's hard? It's a matter of second-by-second choices. Failed? ok, that's in the past. Might fail? ok, that's in the future. You're in the present. Just do it.
  - bbcbasic 11y ago
    Ok I am open minded. Today I will just do it and post back some results :-). And perhaps I should buy a certain brand of trainers?