It seems reasonable, and is consistent with my own experience, that deliberately and vividly imagining the pleasant experiences associated with doing X activates the former and inhibits the latter.
But since I can’t actually copy this technique and have it work every time, I suspect that other people find it equally unenlightening, which is why I think it’s a poor model for actually bringing someone out of procrastination. That is, I think there’s something else going on in your head in addition to just imagining the pleasant experience that you’re not recognizing and therefore can’t communicate. Not just you, of course, this is exactly what I’m struggling with: identifying why my brain works differently some days than others. I’m in the middle of tracking what the conditions are when I have an “on” day versus an “off” one. I’ve already noticed that if I write down the patterns of thoughts that I have when “on”, thinking them back to myself when I’m “off” doesn’t actually change my mental state. I really want to identify what factor(s) will turn me from “off” to “on” every single time. An impossible goal, alas.
Do you think that on certain days, you’ve had to draw on your resources a lot in order to manage interactions with other people (say, pushy salespeople or whiny coworkers)? After a tiring day, or under conditions of stress (hunger or lack of sleep, for example), your brain would definitely be working differently, and not necessarily to your best advantage in the self-control department.
For me, the challenge is sometimes recognizing that I need to actually stop pushing myself.
But since I can’t actually copy this technique and have it work every time, I suspect that other people find it equally unenlightening, which is why I think it’s a poor model for actually bringing someone out of procrastination. That is, I think there’s something else going on in your head in addition to just imagining the pleasant experience that you’re not recognizing and therefore can’t communicate. Not just you, of course, this is exactly what I’m struggling with: identifying why my brain works differently some days than others. I’m in the middle of tracking what the conditions are when I have an “on” day versus an “off” one. I’ve already noticed that if I write down the patterns of thoughts that I have when “on”, thinking them back to myself when I’m “off” doesn’t actually change my mental state. I really want to identify what factor(s) will turn me from “off” to “on” every single time. An impossible goal, alas.
Do you think that on certain days, you’ve had to draw on your resources a lot in order to manage interactions with other people (say, pushy salespeople or whiny coworkers)? After a tiring day, or under conditions of stress (hunger or lack of sleep, for example), your brain would definitely be working differently, and not necessarily to your best advantage in the self-control department.
For me, the challenge is sometimes recognizing that I need to actually stop pushing myself.