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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)

#201

Post by maximus-decimus »

arcastroe wrote: post #68
maximus-decimus wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why you need Soylent^TM bottles, so that drinking them is even less effort! The way I see it, that's kinda the whole advantage of something like soylent.

+1, also look into Huel. I personally like it better than Soylent.

Or if you're a milk-loving boy like me there's Basically Food BOOST, formerly know as Milk Fuel, formerly known as Schmilk (but we can't say this one because of the trademark infringement).

https://basicallyfood.com/products/boost?selling_plan=606050...

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

#202

Post by glitchc »

andrewstuart wrote: post #141
glitchc wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's still just willpower, usually people need more. A combination of willpower, friction and substitution is usually effective.

>> That's still just willpower No it's not. Willpower is a brute force decision to stop and then fighting the urge until you beat the urge. Deferring a decision to do something for increasing periods of time is not fighting yourself. The key is that when the defer period is up, you either do the thing such as smoking a cigarette - unless you are OK to defer a little further. You're not in a fight with yourself. It's…

When temptation strikes, deferring that temptation is an act of will. Saying "not yet" and "not now" doesn't make it any easier and feels no different from "no" to the part of your brain that's craving it.

Most people have to have that cigarette/drug/etc right away, present conditions be damned. Distancing one's mind from the strong craving requires immense self-control as it's very uncomfortable, perhaps even painful, to do so.

You need another tool. Often people use distraction, look over here at this shiny thing. Perhaps this is what you used, if you think back on your experience. Distraction is essentially a type of substitution.

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

#203

Post by cout »

bmicraft wrote: post #195
LoganDark wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about self-awareness, is the thing. If you notice you're doing something after you've already started doing it, then you already did it compulsively, without thinking. The goal is to start doing it on purpose so that the compulsion doesn't even have to happen at all. By doing this, you teach your brain that you don't need the compulsion anymore.

Is there any research to suggest that's a real thing? It certainly does not sound like something that should be possible when you put it this way.

I read a paper recently that proposed that procrastination involves a slow increase in anxiety as a deadline approaches and a stimulus that is conditioned by the removal of that anxiety. That is, chronic procrastinators receive a greater reward when they wait until the deadline. This is supported by animal studies.

It is possible that there is a similar mechanism here. The choice to delay gratification is akin to procrastination; the urge itself becomes a conditioned stimulus reinforced by the strong reward of delaying gratification until the scheduled time.

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

#205

Post by quickthrower2 »

ijhuygft776 wrote: post #185
dboreham wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for a guy who said he would take up smoking at age 75 because he'd calculated the impact on his remaining life span at that point would be minimal.

I'm not sure I would wait that long if I wanted to smoke... many smokers live their life expectancy anyways

The modal solo free climber probably does also.

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

#207

Post by Sakos »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #177
rtsil wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To break a habit, you have to replace it with a different habit. Willpower is one of the ways to do that, but others are more successful on more people. The reason why so many people hire a coach for physical activities, diet or even life decisions isn't so much that these are extremely specialized domains that need high expertise; it's that having someone make the decision, i.e. not relying on willpower, is often mo…

I think there is a fundamental misalignment here about what constitutes willpower. The coach isn't a contradiction to willpower. You still make the choice to get up and go when you are lazy, you have just changed the incentives and accountability. It also takes willpower and initiative to hire a coach. If you avoid anything difficult and quit the second things get hard, no a mount of support will help. By all means,…

For some reason you and others seem to think every action or decision takes the same amount of effort and willpower. That's the only contradiction I see in these comments which is causing all these conflicting opinions.

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

#208

Post by paulclinger »

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.

True, but I take loading a dishwasher as a puzzle to do it in the most compact/efficient way, which helps with adding enjoyment to the process.

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

#209

Post by pi-e-sigma »

hydrok9 wrote: post #197
pi-e-sigma wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:) can I please get an explanation why it's obvious to you that there is not correlation between singing and dancing ability? I'm genuinely curious EDIT: I can't dance nor sing for shit so I guess I'm a living example of falling victim of some sort of logical fallacy.

they're two totally different skills

wow, such a great and detailed explanation!

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

#210

Post by ZunarJ5 »

ThatMedicIsASpy wrote: post #172
andrewstuart wrote: post #54

Someone explained to me that the subconscious mind does not like giving up something that it likes in exchange for nothing. Say for example you want to give up smoking. So don't give up. Instead, just stop that behavior for the present time - then your subconscious is not fighting you. So you want a cigarette? Well sure OK you can have one, but defer that decision to have it for some period of time. Maybe start with…

I quit biting my nails for a few days and then I always come back to it. I just can't. Nails are more accessible than going for a smoke. The only way to fight back is keeping the mouth busy with gum, toothpicks, pens, whatevers.

Try NAC, seriously. It's the only thing that worked for me and this is coming from someone that will bite off acrylics.

https://www.today.com/health/how-stop-nail-biting-supplement...

If you have a poke on Google Scholar, you'll find the science is quite good on this one.

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