SUGAR 2

A  bit of a follow-up to my previous post, "Sugar", in which I rambled
a bit on the subject of willpower and making positive changes in one's
life.

It's been going well. I haven't given in to sugary temptation yet!

Two things that occurred to me:



1. Decisions
======================================================================

Another way of saying that I "believe" I need to avoid sugar is:  I've
made up my mind.  Or: I've made a decision.

There's an idea going around* that:

      "Willpower  is  for  people  who are still uncertain about
      what they want to do."

I think I really understand that now.  And it makes sense if  you  be-
lieve that decision-making is a huge drain on willpower.[2]

If  you've  not  made  a definitive decision (or made up your mind, or
formed a belief), then you're going to have to continuously choose  or
*decide*  to  do  the  right  thing over and over again.  The universe
says, "yum, thanks for all the willpower, it was delicious!"

Come to think of it, I guess I'm trying to believe/decide/make  up  my
mind in order to BECOME THE SORT OF PERSON WHO DOESN'T EAT SUGAR.



2. Habits
======================================================================

I'm actually pretty good at *doing* new habits.

I didn't used to be. I was awful. That changed when I forced myself to
started my logging habit.[3]

Having  that  one  success  under  my belt seemed to be the confidence
booster (or willpower muscle workout) I needed to get over the hump on
a lot of things.

Anyway,  what I mean is that I'm actually far too hard on myself some-
times; I really am good at making changes when  they  require  that  I
*DO* a thing.

What I've had a much harder time doing is *NOT DOING* things.

I have a hard time *NOT* eating the wrong foods.

I have a hard time *NOT* staying up too late (and missing sleep).

It  looks  like  I  have  two different strategies for those two chal-
lenges:

For the food (current target: sugar), I'm attempting to change  myself
into one of those non-sugar-eating-people.

For  the  bedtime  thing,  my  latest strategy is to turn the negative
"don't get distracted by bright screens and stay up late" into a posi-
tive "I WILL go to bed at a specific time."

Okay,  that's  all I've got for now.  I'm getting dangerously close to
failing my bedtime resolution!  Happy hacking, g0pherz!


Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1]  The  quote  is  apparently from a blogger who goes by the name of
"Helia", but I believe it's popularized by Benjamin Hardy and his book
"Willpower Doesn't Work", which I have not yet read.

[2]  That idea comes from "Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human
Strength" by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney, which I  have  read.  It
would be interesting to compare and contrast the two books. :-)

[3]   gopher://sdf.org/0/users/ratfactor/phlog/2018-08-10-The-Logging-
Habit