Join me in achieving self-discipline?

[EndogenousRebel]

If at first you don't succeed, try try again.. Or something like that.

I can sorta relate to Inex. I'm beginning to see things in terms of circumstance, and am working to see myself as a creator of my own circumstance. It holds me accountable while also allowing me to recognize that most people don't posses that much control, or at least, not as much as they'd like to. People don't "directly" create/control the circumstance they are in, they are controlling themselves within the circumstance they find themselves in.

Look at what happens with procrastination for example. It may be an semi-effective strategy, but it is certainly not efficient. It would only work if you perceive the failure of not finishing task as unacceptable (something I am becoming numb to.) If the steaks are high enough for you and you have the control, you will do the bulk of the work when you believe it is necessary. Diminishing time and the pressures it brings influence you, make you feel like you need to act (i'm interested in discussing the physiological implications, but I doubt that conversation will stay in the realm of concreteness.)

Spoiler: personal tangent

My first year of Uni, I was pretty okay, just par for my target GPA of 3.0. Now, I'm so disillusioned and burned out about education and everything related that I couldn't give 2 more fucks about it. I feel bad that I'm neglecting it right now, but I know that in my case, it doesn't matter too much, and that I will always have time to finish whenever I want.

The point I'm making with circumstance and procrastination. Procrastination creates a circumstance where you will do work. If I accurately defined why procrastinating works (I'm sure we can do better) and is something we rely on, then we should be able to emulate/reverse engineer this aspect. The challenge and need for creativity lies in how we do that. Really I think most of the challenge is planning against the inevitability of burnout. Is there a way to be zen about it? I created a schedule that I felt was perfect, but of course life has to get in the way and made it reasonably undo able (80hrs a week). Surely we can condition ourselves to have more stamina, but, I don't know. Definitely something that would require research.

 

[Inexorable Username]

If at first you don't succeed, try try again.. Or something like that.

I can sorta relate to Inex. I'm beginning to see things in terms of circumstance, and am working to see myself as a creator of my own circumstance. It holds me accountable while also allowing me to recognize that most people don't posses that much control, or at least, not as much as they'd like to. People don't "directly" create/control the circumstance they are in, they are controlling themselves within the circumstance they find themselves in.

Look at what happens with procrastination for example. It may be an semi-effective strategy, but it is certainly not efficient. It would only work if you perceive the failure of not finishing task as unacceptable (something I am becoming numb to.) If the steaks are high enough for you and you have the control, you will do the bulk of the work when you believe it is necessary. Diminishing time and the pressures it brings influence you, make you feel like you need to act (i'm interested in discussing the physiological implications, but I doubt that conversation will stay in the realm of concreteness.)

Spoiler: personal tangent

My first year of Uni, I was pretty okay, just par for my target GPA of 3.0. Now, I'm so disillusioned and burned out about education and everything related that I couldn't give 2 more fucks about it. I feel bad that I'm neglecting it right now, but I know that in my case, it doesn't matter too much, and that I will always have time to finish whenever I want.

The point I'm making with circumstance and procrastination. Procrastination creates a circumstance where you will do work. If I accurately defined why procrastinating works (I'm sure we can do better) and is something we rely on, then we should be able to emulate/reverse engineer this aspect. The challenge and need for creativity lies in how we do that. Really I think most of the challenge is planning against the inevitability of burnout. Is there a way to be zen about it? I created a schedule that I felt was perfect, but of course life has to get in the way and made it reasonably undo able (80hrs a week). Surely we can condition ourselves to have more stamina, but, I don't know. Definitely something that would require research.

I’m getting less in to the stamina approach or the “seeing an unfinished project as unacceptable” approach. In college these were both things I used to my advantage. At this point of my life, I look around at adults that are still using stress and anxiety based discipline methods, and I feel that are unhealthy.

Now that I’m officially 30, I’ve put more thought into how I treat my body for long term health. I see stress as being potentially one of the worst things for long term health because it leads to hormonal imbalance and depression.

However, stress is traditionally what I used for self-discipline . It’s a little disconcerting to abandon it.

Atomic habits has helped me greatly in imagining ways I can achieve self-discipline...minus the discipline. (The only method that appears to work for me long term).

Other than that, I’ve had to use my two other “strong suits” as a person - creativity and eagerness to learn. I know that the secret in me doing something consistently lies in gown much I value it, and there are few things in life I value more than knowledge. I am something of a knowledge addict.

So, creatively, I have been trying to find subjects I can learn about that will interest me in the things I need to be disciplined about. In the gym, I’ve been refining my physical coordination and I’ve even been practicing some footwork. I might like to take up dancing or fighting. (Lol. Fine line?)

To sleep more, I’ve been practicing remembering my dreams and lucid dreaming. Last night I remembered about 4 dreams, but even though each time I woke up I spent time remembering them, only two memories were left by the time I actually felt like I was up for the day. Next time I’m going to make audio recordings of them. Also they were useless dreams, and none were lucid. More work isn’t needed.

Being able to interest myself in virtually anything was a skill I developed in college where my classes were so monotonous to me, I knew I would never succeed if I couldn’t learn to love the subject material. I’m just not that disciplined.

Practicing that, though, led me to have this insatiable appetite for learning. I’m happy it did, because a lot if theoretical doors ware open for me now.

 

[EndogenousRebel]

I don't know when but at some point I got the impression that time worked = value-added. For the longest time, I've been equating these two and have been trying to increase the amount of time I'm "working." Of course, I should've realized this when trying to work 80hrs/week (even though I was recovering from a traumatic experience.) because at that pace I couldn't do anything productive after a couple of days even.

Now I'm starting to think time itself is only valuable if whatever I'm doing within it builds some sort of value out of being done or progressed towards. Maybe having to think about this, how truly valuable something is, like asking what problems does it fix, how will I benefit me is a good way to go. The problem for me is still activation. I looked into habits a little, and the cues are everywhere, I guess I should just be assigning value making behavior to those cues, but I don't know, it feel like it will still lead to me overwhelmed. I don't know I'll implement something, and update when I can.

 

[Inexorable Username]

I don't know when but at some point I got the impression that time worked = value-added. For the longest time, I've been equating these two and have been trying to increase the amount of time I'm "working." Of course, I should've realized this when trying to work 80hrs/week (even though I was recovering from a traumatic experience.) because at that pace I couldn't do anything productive after a couple of days even.

Now I'm starting to think time itself is only valuable if whatever I'm doing within it builds some sort of value out of being done or progressed towards. Maybe having to think about this, how truly valuable something is, like asking what problems does it fix, how will I benefit me is a good way to go. The problem for me is still activation. I looked into habits a little, and the cues are everywhere, I guess I should just be assigning value making behavior to those cues, but I don't know, it feel like it will still lead to me overwhelmed. I don't know I'll implement something, and update when I can.

Good luck! Let us know how it works out!

 

[EndogenousRebel]

Seeing as I've wanted to get into project management, I've gone through the steps of running one (project.) I've only done this once before and it's more of a mock/practice thing, but the process itself puts things in perspective.

The project is habituating myself to assemble the identity I want. Here is my project charter, which is basically a template to plan a project (there are proper terms besides project, but they are jargonny.) Really don't wanna bore you with all the text and it's probably missing some things, but what put things in perspective for me (as it always does) is the Work Breakdown Sheet (WBS,) which breaksdown all the steps into a visual that is concise and prompt, and eliminates most of the anxiety of the process of not knowing when I'm finished/what the next thing to do is. (Plus it shows just how many steps it takes to do what I want to do, showing that it ain't no walk in the park.)

As for the habit forming for discipline, I'm kinda seeing this as an algorithm that will be my bible. It's kinda weird actually, I can't imagine how it will feel if it works. I think this process will really make what my issues are, provide clarity and will allow me to strip away unnecessary things that don't help me. This being said, I have to think like an engineer and this as a prototype that will be improved with better versions. I'm honestly a little exited to implement it, which I plan to do in a couple days.