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letahl comments on [video] Kelly McGonigal on willpower - Less Wrong Discussion
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For those who watched the video or are familiar with her work, did it strike you as strange that both of these things are correlated with increased willpower in the future: (1) forgiving yourself and not being critical of failures of willpower and (2) being pessimistic and envisioning failures for the future? Just trying to work out in my mind why they would both be effective.
Let
I haven't watched the video and am not familiar with her work, but I have experimented with both strategies in the context of mood management, which might be similar, and I have indeed found that both strategies can work in that context. I've also found that envisioning failure doesn't work this way when I end up obsessing over it; it only works when I can accept that OK, I might fail, this is what failure would look like, I can live with that.
My own tentative theory is that the important part is accepting, rather than avoiding thinking about, the potential consequences of failure. (Or, come to that, of success.) I have no data to support this, though.
Imagining a specific failure, bringing it to a near mode, can remove the fear of unknown. Without fear, it is easier to work. On the other hand, imagining a failure is priming oneself to fail.
Which influence is stronger?
Maybe the result depends on how exactly, and how long is one imagining things. Methods similar on surface could bring different results.
Usually failure is a lot less terrible in reality than what you imagine.. or when it is terrible you tend to very prepared for your task. If you have too much optimism you don't tend to be prepared enough and when you fail it is hard to try again. Being realistic and basing your life on reality is much more powerful than being an optimistic wishful thinker.
Deep down your true self knows you are trying to deceive it. And remember what you can really accomplish if you just progress one little step at a time..
if you imagine a failure you can surely imagine a way to avoid the failure.. that is really the point.. to be prepared.. and also to be prepared to realize that the failure is not really not so bad and is really a part of every endeavor.. without it there is no success. If you imagine you always only succeed you will accomplish a lot less.