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Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

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Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#31

Post by joshghent »

jawns wrote: post #28

I am not a smoker, but I recently read through Allan Carr's "Easy Way to Quit Smoking Without Willpower" book. (There is a similar book out there called the Easy Peasy Way to Quit Porn, for those who are struggling with that.) The tl;dr is that it's much harder to quit an addiction with the mindset, "This thing is great, but I'm going to deprive myself of it." Instead, you need to realize that you've been deceived an…

Completely agree! Ultra processed people by Chris Van Tullekan is similar for eating unhealthily.

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#32

Post by Boogie_Man »

Quitting things for me personally requires tricking my base lizard brain. I recall an Onion News video with a parody PSA: "Smoking is Gay". You have to use the smart guy you to outsmart the dumb guy you. Set traps for him. Anticipate his moves and crush him.

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#33

Post by sgillen »

rodlette wrote: post #24
devbent wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who consider themselves "gym rats" go to the gym because it is what they do. People who are mountain bikers don't ride to keep in shape, they look forward to getting on their bike.

Those are easy to see, but there are few people who clean their dishes for fun/leisure.

I clean my dishes because I like having a clean / neat household, "I am the kind of person who keeps my space in order". I find that helps!

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#34

Post by hinkley »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #15

Once you realise you are more of a sheep than you think you can do things like adapt your environment to encourage giving up the habit. Or replace the havit with a new more powerful one. Or use a star chart!

Type one versus type 2 thinking, and pitting one against the other.

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#35

Post by cvwright »

rodlette wrote: post #24
devbent wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who consider themselves "gym rats" go to the gym because it is what they do. People who are mountain bikers don't ride to keep in shape, they look forward to getting on their bike.

Those are easy to see, but there are few people who clean their dishes for fun/leisure.

No but there are people who pride themselves on always keeping a clean kitchen etc

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#36

Post by akira2501 »

tpmoney wrote: post #26
proc0 wrote: post #2

> Wood ends her book with advice for those of us who have become hostages to our smartphones. She offers a stepwise strategy. First, recognize your dependency, and acknowledge how the habit disrupts work, social interactions, and safe driving. Next, “control the context cues,” meaning identify what triggers you to grab the phone That still requires will power. It could probably be reduced to intention, and not so muc…

I think the problem becomes that most people use "willpower", especially when talking about bad habits, in a sense of "just stop doing The Thing". Without deep examination about WHY you do The Thing, that is a very hard thing to do because all the triggers and incentives for you to do The Thing continue to be present and push you back towards doing The Thing. Saying someone lacks Willpower is often a fancy substituti…

Will power is not some magic force that we are born with. To me "will power" comes from precisely the process you are describing, the self interrogation into the source of these negative behaviors, examination of how they hold you back, and anticipation of what you might be able to achieve if you master them.

What I've observed in people is the disconnect on the last part of that pathway. They understand their deficiencies but they either believe the costs are too great versus what they might be able to achieve otherwise, or they are not able to truly appreciate the scale of change that is possible in their life by starting on the smallest part of their problem. There's also people who were just raised poorly and reliably self defeat at this point as well.

Anyways.. to me, it's like anything else, it's much easier to do if you practice it, and most people just aren't truly given the opportunities to practice it successfully in their formative years.

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#37

Post by hinkley »

jawns wrote: post #28

I am not a smoker, but I recently read through Allan Carr's "Easy Way to Quit Smoking Without Willpower" book. (There is a similar book out there called the Easy Peasy Way to Quit Porn, for those who are struggling with that.) The tl;dr is that it's much harder to quit an addiction with the mindset, "This thing is great, but I'm going to deprive myself of it." Instead, you need to realize that you've been deceived an…

Additionally people crowd out a bad habit instead of abstaining from it.

Give yourself less time to be bad. Do something instead to sublimate some of that energy.

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#38

Post by jnsie »

Boogie_Man wrote: post #32

Quitting things for me personally requires tricking my base lizard brain. I recall an Onion News video with a parody PSA: "Smoking is Gay". You have to use the smart guy you to outsmart the dumb guy you. Set traps for him. Anticipate his moves and crush him.

You can't bring us this far without some examples! Fess up, OP!

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#40

Post by zogrodea »

My first thought after reading the title was about ego depletion (a controversial theory that willpower is a limited resource), but the claim here seems unrelated to that since it instead states that willpower is just not effective at eliminating bad habits, not touching whether willpower is a limited resource or not.

Common advice for at least a millenium has been that a consistent good habit, even if small, is better than a large gesture that's not long maintained. Andreas Kling (author of SerenityOS) can relate to this. https://awesomekling.github.io/Excellence-is-a-habit-but-so-...

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