First comment on this thing. I’ve lurked for a few months now. :)
I appreciate what super power you’re trying to unveil here and I’d like to contribute a few thoughts from my own experience. I’ll try to offer a more robust mechanism for coercing your own behavior: Your memory. I think you touched on it when you gave the example of smelling, touching, and staring at the cake followed by throwing it away. You stopped there, however, not citing what about that ritual coerces future behavior. Memory is what makes that happen.
Memory of how good the cake tastes is what makes you want more of it in the first place. Similarly the memory of rejecting the cake and surviving, especially memories of rejecting the cake and recognizing the rewards (perhaps even because you reward yourself) will coerce your opinion towards rejecting it again in the future. If you can give yourself positive memories about self-denial you will be able to access self-denial again in the future with greater ease. The more positive memories you have with an activity, the easier it is to repeat that activity.
This is what I’ve noticed in myself anyway. The studies continue..
First comment on this thing. I’ve lurked for a few months now. :)
I appreciate what super power you’re trying to unveil here and I’d like to contribute a few thoughts from my own experience. I’ll try to offer a more robust mechanism for coercing your own behavior: Your memory. I think you touched on it when you gave the example of smelling, touching, and staring at the cake followed by throwing it away. You stopped there, however, not citing what about that ritual coerces future behavior. Memory is what makes that happen.
Memory of how good the cake tastes is what makes you want more of it in the first place. Similarly the memory of rejecting the cake and surviving, especially memories of rejecting the cake and recognizing the rewards (perhaps even because you reward yourself) will coerce your opinion towards rejecting it again in the future. If you can give yourself positive memories about self-denial you will be able to access self-denial again in the future with greater ease. The more positive memories you have with an activity, the easier it is to repeat that activity.
This is what I’ve noticed in myself anyway. The studies continue..