Yes, I meant literally painful.
Before a rather helpful suggestion in this forum, my original plan for a routine was to start with 1 each of a selected set of exercises: jumping jacks, toe-touches, push-ups, etc; then add 1 to each every day, with a goal of 30. (After doing some further reading, I added left-, right-, and front-planks.) Push-ups were my major obstacle - by the time I was doing twenty-odd, the first ten were easy, the next five or six slightly painful, and by the last few my arms were shaking and the muscles /quite/ painful.
Today's magic number was 26 - and instead of doing them all in a row, I did the push-ups in groups of 6,5,5,5,5, with enough of a break in between to let the ache go down to easily-manageable levels. Since this confirms yesterday's first trial that this change makes things mind-bogglingly less hurty, I'm going to try breaking out my new wrist-weights tomorrow, even though I'm not yet at my initially-set goal of 30.
(Yes, I started this thread hoping to learn ways to simply keep myself motivated to accept the pain instead of trying to reduce it. I really am only an /aspiring/ rationalist, it seems, but I'm willing to work with all the lessons involved. :) )
Yes, I started this thread hoping to learn ways to simply keep myself motivated to accept the pain instead of trying to reduce it.
The funny thing about that sentence is that pain generally becomes stronger when you "try to reduce it" and weaker when you accept it being there.
Before a rather helpful suggestion in this forum, my original plan for a routine was to start with 1 each of a selected set of exercises: jumping jacks, toe-touches, push-ups, etc; then add 1 to each every day, with a goal of 30.
That sound like a goal that might fit ...
"Cryonics has a 95% chance of failure, by my estimation; it would be downright /embarrassing/ to die on the day before real immortality is discovered. Thus, I want to improve my general health and longevity."
That thought has gotten me through three weeks of gradually increasing exercise and diet improvement (I'm eating an apple right now) - but my enthusiasm is starting to flag. So I'm looking for new thoughts that will help me keep going, and keep improving. A few possibilities that I've thought of:
Pride: "If I'm so smart, then I should be able to do /better/ than those other people who don't even know about Bayesian updates, let alone the existence of akrasia..."
Sloth: "If I stop now, it's going to be /so much/ harder and more painful to start up again, instead of just keeping on keeping on..."
Desire: "I already like hiking and camping - if I keep this up, I'll be able to carry enough weight to finally take that long trip I've occasionally considered..."
Curiosity: "I'm as geeky a nerd as you can find. I wonder how far I can hack my own body?"
Pride again: "I already keep a hiker's first-aid kit in my pocket, and make other preparations for events that happen rarely. How stupid do I have to be not to put at least that much effort into making my everyday life easier?"
Does anyone have any experience in such self-motivation? Does this set of mental tricks seem like a sufficiently viable approach? Are there any other approaches that seem worth a shot?