Before I get into how I am going to hack my habits, I need to set a bit of groundwork.
The first thing to get out of the way, is that the science I quote here will, where possible, come from actual books I've read rather than just random shit on the internet that some troll could have just made up. If I have to use a website, I'll try to make it a reputable one.
So today I want to talk about willpower. What follows below is what I have learned from Daniel Kahneman's book "Thinking Fast and Slow". He won a Nobel Prize for the science that went into this book - it really is worth reading.
The point is that your will power is a muscle. You can only use it so much before you fatigue it and it fails.
I like to use the analogy of running a marathon. If you have never run a marathon, it's highly unlikely you are going to be able to get off the couch and run 42k, no matter how much you decide you want it. You are going to fatigue and you are going to stop.
So if you have a stack of bad habits, and you burn out all of your willpower trying concentrate on your boring job all day, you aren't going to be able to change them all at once by sheer force of will, no matter how many bullshit JFDI memes you look it. I have failed enough times to know this, and the evidence is clear - most people try and fail. It's not because they are weak, its just they have too many bad habits.
The things you do habitually take no willpower at all, but making new habits and killing old ones takes a lot of willpower.
So I reckon the trick is to slowly and systematically change these habits one or two at a time. This blog is going to be my journey and trying to use the science and hack my stupid monkey brain to make some real progress towards a few goals that have been taunting me for years.
Strap in, it's going to be fun.
.
The first thing to get out of the way, is that the science I quote here will, where possible, come from actual books I've read rather than just random shit on the internet that some troll could have just made up. If I have to use a website, I'll try to make it a reputable one.
So today I want to talk about willpower. What follows below is what I have learned from Daniel Kahneman's book "Thinking Fast and Slow". He won a Nobel Prize for the science that went into this book - it really is worth reading.
The point is that your will power is a muscle. You can only use it so much before you fatigue it and it fails.
I like to use the analogy of running a marathon. If you have never run a marathon, it's highly unlikely you are going to be able to get off the couch and run 42k, no matter how much you decide you want it. You are going to fatigue and you are going to stop.
So if you have a stack of bad habits, and you burn out all of your willpower trying concentrate on your boring job all day, you aren't going to be able to change them all at once by sheer force of will, no matter how many bullshit JFDI memes you look it. I have failed enough times to know this, and the evidence is clear - most people try and fail. It's not because they are weak, its just they have too many bad habits.
The things you do habitually take no willpower at all, but making new habits and killing old ones takes a lot of willpower.
So I reckon the trick is to slowly and systematically change these habits one or two at a time. This blog is going to be my journey and trying to use the science and hack my stupid monkey brain to make some real progress towards a few goals that have been taunting me for years.
Strap in, it's going to be fun.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment