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Prismattic comments on How to become a PC? - Less Wrong Discussion
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Much as immortality seems to be a popular goal around here, "I want to live a long time" and "I want to be immortal" are both abstract and distant goals, which complicates motivation. My brain (and I suspect other people's brains) responds better to goals that are more concrete and closer in time.
E.g.
"I want to improve my chances that the hot girl/guy that works in the next department over will say yes when I ask them out"
or
"I want to run that 5k next summer in less than 30 minutes"
are much more concrete and immediate goals, and therefore more likely to succeed as motivation.
Hmmm...I'm not sure this is good advice. Goals per se aren't usually great motivators. And I'd say sex is a better motivator than an abstract numerical achievement. And "Next summer" is not immediate.
I see what you're saying; I'm just blanking a bit as I try to think of any reasonable mid-term goals.
Don't have goals. Find something you like doing that also is exercise. Maybe it's a partnered sport like racquetball. Maybe it's juggling, walking in the woods. It can even just be something sedentary programming and you can make it exercise by doing it on a treadmill.
Do have goals; don't try to meet them by willpower alone, unless they're very short-term. I'd instead think of your goals as giving you something to aim your habits at.
Habits are easier to establish if you find them enjoyable in themselves, but habit alone is pretty powerful once you've taken the hit of establishing it.