I recently stumbled across this video, which is making me rethink the Mini Habits thesis.
In summary, Dr. K specifically calls out that many people focus on habits to avoid running out of willpower but considers good habits and discipline to be separate things. He says “discipline” is not the exertion of willpower either, but rather it’s a particular emotion: resolve.
To help explain what “resolve” means, he said that the opposite emotion is doubt. I think the cultivation of doubt is super important to our practice of epistemic rationality, but (according to Dr. K) to become disciplined, one must cultivate its opposite, resolve. So perhaps our epistemic skills have come at the cost of neglecting our agency. Resolve seems pretty dangerous if it’s aimed at the wrong goals, so (if this works) I think it’s important to cultivate both and to choose goals very carefully. On the other hand, too much doubt might also be unhealthy in the long term as it tends to numb all the other emotions over time.
Dr. K says that for the practice of cultivating resolve, one shouldn’t start with something too important. One should pick something relatively easy/medium difficulty. His example was giving up ice cream for ten years. That particular resolution might not be appropriate for everyone, but it kind of indicates the level to aim for. It’s not saving the world, but it’s not trivial either. One should meditate on one’s feeling of resolve about the practice resolution daily for at least a few minutes. Just stoke the emotion and amp it up.
His example was giving up ice cream for 10 years, but it doesn’t take 10 years to see some progress. He says to move on to a more important resolve after cultivating the unimportant practice one daily for about 30 days. Then you can meditate on the important one daily for 15-20 minutes.
I recently stumbled across this video, which is making me rethink the Mini Habits thesis.
In summary, Dr. K specifically calls out that many people focus on habits to avoid running out of willpower but considers good habits and discipline to be separate things. He says “discipline” is not the exertion of willpower either, but rather it’s a particular emotion: resolve.
To help explain what “resolve” means, he said that the opposite emotion is doubt. I think the cultivation of doubt is super important to our practice of epistemic rationality, but (according to Dr. K) to become disciplined, one must cultivate its opposite, resolve. So perhaps our epistemic skills have come at the cost of neglecting our agency. Resolve seems pretty dangerous if it’s aimed at the wrong goals, so (if this works) I think it’s important to cultivate both and to choose goals very carefully. On the other hand, too much doubt might also be unhealthy in the long term as it tends to numb all the other emotions over time.
Dr. K says that for the practice of cultivating resolve, one shouldn’t start with something too important. One should pick something relatively easy/medium difficulty. His example was giving up ice cream for ten years. That particular resolution might not be appropriate for everyone, but it kind of indicates the level to aim for. It’s not saving the world, but it’s not trivial either. One should meditate on one’s feeling of resolve about the practice resolution daily for at least a few minutes. Just stoke the emotion and amp it up.
His example was giving up ice cream for 10 years, but it doesn’t take 10 years to see some progress. He says to move on to a more important resolve after cultivating the unimportant practice one daily for about 30 days. Then you can meditate on the important one daily for 15-20 minutes.