Self control
·
Your belief about how self-control works become
a self-fulfilling prophecy
o
If you think your willpower is limited, youll
fel depleted after exercising self-control
o
If you believe your willpower is unlimited,
youll feel energized by self-control tasks
·
You can gradually change your beliefs to become
more unlimited
·
Do you have to or do you want to?
o
Reconsider whether its worth wasting your time
and effort on something you don’t really want to do in the first place
·
Strategies
o
Temptation bundling
§
TV, favourite podcase, music -> in
combination with chores like dish washing, laundry, workout
o
Limit yourself and exlude options
§
No alerts / push notifications
§
No social media apps
§
App block / time restrictions
§
Phone on silent / in another room
o
Adjust your identity to prevent self-control
failures
§
“I am…” fit / a sportsmen / a marathon runner
§
Indulging in temptations would incur a cost to
your self-image
§
“Every action you take is a vote for the kind of
person you wish to become”
o
Think broadly about a choice
§
Think of your choice (whether to indulge or not9
not as a one-shot decision, but as a
sequence of habitual decisions
§
Always ask yourself: what will be the
consequences if I indulge every time?
§
Realize that in the future you likely wont
change much – youll be equally tempted to indulge as youre now and you wont
have more willpower or resources to deal with temptations than you have now
§
Ask yourself – what would my older self ask me
to do better now?
o
“rephrase” your thinking
§
Instead of “Oh a yummy cake” think “hmm, what a
fattening piece of high-calorie, vein-clogging dessert”
o
Decide once – in general rules – vs over and
over again
§
Eg. “I don’t eat desserts” vs deciding against
it at every meal
§
“I eat from the salad/veggie bar in canteen” as
a general rule. Then you don’t have to consider your choice, decide against the
5 other options actively,…
·
On decision making
o
Whenever making an important decision, get
yourself into a high-level (=abstract) construal by asking yourself a series of
“why” questions
§
Want to lose weight!
·
“Why”?
o
More attractive
§
Why?
·
Do this until you’ve connected to your deepest
values (because is gives me great joy, because I deeply value my life etc.)
o
(This works great! I did not do a career choice
for reasons of money or possible power (i.e. climbing to leadership) for itself
as money / power does not interest me – I am interested in learning, observing,
and my priority of taking care for family and spending/having time is higher
than “job”)
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen