Mind Games I Like to Play With Myself

[Jake Danger]

When I find that my self-discipline is lacking, I like to nag myself about it. Then I offer to stop nagging at myself in exchange for appropriate action (go and work out, for example). But it always turns out to be easier to just stop nagging than to actually work out. I thought maybe I had a split personality but then I learned that what I do is often called the "imaginary motivation strategy" (which, quite naturally, yields imaginary results!) and that it is a serious impedimaent to the development of true self-discipline. What do you think?

[GreatnessBlog]

I think that nagging or criticizing oneself can often be counterproductive. One technique I like from the book Feeling Good is to make a prediction of how much you'll enjoy something (say working out) on a scale of 1 to 10. Then trying it and rating how much you actually enjoyed it. A lot of times you'll be surprised by how inaccurate your predictions were.

[NoelKuhl]

Nagging yourself will probably drain more of your energy than if you actually start getting dressed for gym. Good call on stopping it.

[thef0x]

Originally Posted by GreatnessBlog

I think that nagging or criticizing oneself can often be counterproductive. One technique I like from the book Feeling Good is to make a prediction of how much you'll enjoy something (say working out) on a scale of 1 to 10. Then trying it and rating how much you actually enjoyed it. A lot of times you'll be surprised by how inaccurate your predictions were.

I'll do this