I loled at your stacking your deck pictures!! I totally agree with what you have said.

I’m not overtly clever, but I did extremely well in school. People saw me studying all the time without fail. I was addicted to study, I did nothing else but study. People thought I must’ve had amazing reserves of concentration, dedication, willpower etc.

Well, I didn’t. Instead, my family was quite a bit poorer than everyone else’s family. Was it a good or bad thing that we couldn’t afford a computer or TV at home? Was it a good or bad thing that I also had nowhere to go after school, so I went to the general library instead, 5 min walk from school. My mother remarked that it was the cheapest and best baby sitter ever.

So, I really had no choice in the matter. I’m just like everyone else with the same desires, temptations, willpower. But if the most interesting thing you can do is study, then you study. If the only place you can go is the library, then you go to the library.

We give ourselves too many choices these days. Sometimes no choice is the best choice.

You want to grow too, otherwise you wouldn’t be even thinking about this. You want to improve. All you need is to think outside of the box, because your “box” apparently isn’t satisfying for you.

Raw willpower is a precious resource, but it’s good to know that while it might be limited (which is disputable), it is also scientifically proven that if you believe it is limited, it will be limited for you and you will have less of it. So I would suggest you to discard that limiting belief, perhaps as an experiment. Don’t focus on what you think you lack – focus on what you can do.

Start small. Don’t do everything at once. Think about BREAKING THE PATTERN. That’s my main message here – BREAKING THE PATTERN. You are running the same pattern again and again, getting the same results. So how can you BREAK your pattern? What would it take for you to do one tiny action differently, but each day? Is it really impossible? I don’t know you. But you know yourself (hopefully), so you might have a hunch what might break your pattern, so you can start slowly building something better. You don’t need buckets of willpower for that. Even if you look at it from the willpower issue standpoint, this is the solution. Just like your physical muscles, willpower and self-discipline muscles grow over time, all you have to do is to use them. Do just one half-squat every day if you must, but do it, and do it every day. Build from there. You can do it, JDoe.

very interesting article, thanks.

I’ve been thinking about very similar topic for some time… about good and bad behavior patterns and how to break the bad one. I’ve even made a little web application for myself that is supposed to change the pattern – when you want to start the ‘bad’ behavior you are required do do certain action that makes you aware of what you are doing (decisions that were previously subconscious or habitual). There is also a gamification element that is supposed to make the ‘good’ behavior more rewarding… I am kind of trying to ‘rewire those patterns a little.

It works for me – I am not sure it would work for other people – and I would be really interested in your opinion – so if you wanna check it out: http://www.simplyeasy.cz/war-on-procrastination/

(I hope you are not going to consider this spam – feel free to remove the liknk if you wish)

My model of two “brains” is of course extremely simplified. In your model, you probably mean that “rational brain” = “the voice in your head”, and everything else = “caveman brain”. But what I meant by “caveman brain” is the part of our wiring which always seeks pleasure and avoids pain, sometimes to our loss [e.g. this is how obesity happens]. One could also argue that we even have 3 brains – as our heart is equipped with 40.000 brain-like neurons too [Steve Pavlina embarked upon this in Why Logic Always Fails You]. You could make many different models, depending on what you are trying to explain.

I completely agree with you that we should make our subconsciousness aligned with our consciousness. From my experience, doing the right thing – for whatever reason – works best, because what you do consciously will shape your subconsciousness eventually as well.

I don’t want to eat junk food on all levels, but once in a while, a weak moment comes. Perhaps my willpower is depleted, my thinking is foggy, and I really want to reward myself. In this case, doing anything I can – stacking the deck in my favor – helps me to not go over the edge; and I am glad.

Detailed summary of The Now Habit by me is published on this blog ;-). Great book indeed. I will definitely check out your other recommendations too. I’ve read everything by Steve Pavlina – every single post (except the forum posts), as I’ve been reading his blog from the very beginning.

Also, yes, you are right that some people are driven by pain and some by pleasure. That’s why I list both methods in this post – everyone can create his perfect mix for achieving his goals.

Have a great day Jose, and thanks for writing!

I’m also an student and practicer of behavioral psychology.

I generally agree with the article but I believe some ideas could be refined.

IMHO is not a good idea to talk about the “caveman” brain as you do, as less advanced, powerful or inferior to the rational brain. The rational brain in fact uses the subconscious emotional brain and is nothing without it. Just think for a moment on your last thought, where it comes from? why it appeared magically in your brain?

This “caveman” brain is the one that reads and listen anything you read and listen. A million pixels are a red box abstraction(so you can handle it rationally) thanks to it. If a person is able to video read thousands of words per second is thanks to it. Even to be able to talk, walk or run or drive a car is thanks to it. If you try to “consciously walk” you will be super slow.

This part of the brain works on parallel and is way faster and more powerful than the conscious one. You need to learn how to use it for your advance. Fats Intuition(using all your brain in parallel) can be more powerful than slow analysis because it uses all the knowledge you have at once not piecemeal.

I recommend you “The power of full engagement” or Eben Pagan “Wake Up productive” to know about integration habits, what Steve Pavlina calls the “30 days to success” or what I call “How to integrate the habits you want to have into your subconscious”.

I won’t ever recommend not to eat or sleep what you feel you need to eat or sleep. I can eat whatever I want the way I want to, but I learn how to don’t want chocolate or sweets in the first place. E.g I discovered I ate chocolate when I was hungry and I had to wait for real food to be cooked. Adding real food on time was the solution.

For procrastination I recommend “The Now Habit” that focus on removing the reasons(mainly fear) your subconscious protects you from doing work, this book transform work in an amazing experience to enjoy every single moment of it.(It totally changed me)

When you study personalities you learn that some people is driven by pain(avoiding it like in “making painful…”), it does not work for other people like me who are better driven by “doing work is so pleasurable that you can help but do it” (it happens when you eliminate fear).
Bye