There are a number of problems associated with this kind of forced commitment :
(1) As Pj Eby says: “what pushes you forward holds you back”. By using fear as motivator, you activate the “pain brain”, which is triggered to run away from problems, instead of the “gain brain”, which is directed towards success.
(2) Forcing yourself to solve one problem will often lead you to neglect other important stuff, or make you solve the problem in a way that fits the definition that you have commited to, but does not achieve the goal you had in mind.
(3) “Burning the ships” may be a bad idea if this additional commitment does not achieve the goal either. Often, commitment ist not the weak link in a chain that makes a project fail
Thank you for writing this, especially for the links. I was immediately thinking about P.J.Eby while reading the article. Motivating oneself through fear could work for a simple physical activity where no thinking is involved, but otherwise, fear freezes the brain. And social activities require some brain work.
I also had a bad feeling about increasing social skills by doing weird things. (Such as: asking stranger about time when you have a watch, or sitting on the floor in the dancing room.) This could be a test of courage, but I think in long term it also reinforces the idea that social relationships are meaningless. -- How about doing something meaningful, something useful instead? Such as: actually helping people who need help. You will get human contact and you will feel good about yourself; thus, putting these two things together, you will feel good about human contact… and at that point developing social skills will be easier.
So my advice (I am not sure it is a good advice, just a first idea) would probably be: “Find some volunteer organization and tell them you are willing to do some work for them, under condition that the work includes social activities (so you wouldn’t for example just sit at home and make a new website for them). Some organization may have some meaningful work for you. And then you would have real social contacts, not just some meaningless acts of courage.”
Reinforcement must be done carefully, because it is too easy to reinforce something we actually didn’t want to. Generally, any kind of punishment is probably wrong because as a side effect it also punishes (1) noticing that we are doing something wrong, and (2) trying to self-improve in general.
There are a number of problems associated with this kind of forced commitment :
(1) As Pj Eby says: “what pushes you forward holds you back”. By using fear as motivator, you activate the “pain brain”, which is triggered to run away from problems, instead of the “gain brain”, which is directed towards success.
http://dirtsimple.org/2011/05/building-dream.html
(2) Forcing yourself to solve one problem will often lead you to neglect other important stuff, or make you solve the problem in a way that fits the definition that you have commited to, but does not achieve the goal you had in mind.
http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2012/12/consider-not-setting-goals-in.html
(3) “Burning the ships” may be a bad idea if this additional commitment does not achieve the goal either. Often, commitment ist not the weak link in a chain that makes a project fail
http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2009/05/21/dont-burn-your-ships/
Thank you for writing this, especially for the links. I was immediately thinking about P.J.Eby while reading the article. Motivating oneself through fear could work for a simple physical activity where no thinking is involved, but otherwise, fear freezes the brain. And social activities require some brain work.
I also had a bad feeling about increasing social skills by doing weird things. (Such as: asking stranger about time when you have a watch, or sitting on the floor in the dancing room.) This could be a test of courage, but I think in long term it also reinforces the idea that social relationships are meaningless. -- How about doing something meaningful, something useful instead? Such as: actually helping people who need help. You will get human contact and you will feel good about yourself; thus, putting these two things together, you will feel good about human contact… and at that point developing social skills will be easier.
So my advice (I am not sure it is a good advice, just a first idea) would probably be: “Find some volunteer organization and tell them you are willing to do some work for them, under condition that the work includes social activities (so you wouldn’t for example just sit at home and make a new website for them). Some organization may have some meaningful work for you. And then you would have real social contacts, not just some meaningless acts of courage.”
Reinforcement must be done carefully, because it is too easy to reinforce something we actually didn’t want to. Generally, any kind of punishment is probably wrong because as a side effect it also punishes (1) noticing that we are doing something wrong, and (2) trying to self-improve in general.