Willpower is Overrated, Willingness is Underrated
We can’t overcome self-deception through resistance, willpower, struggle, control, or more lies.
Because of your insightful commentary, we are having a great start to our study of Constructive Living.
A reminder that our schedule for the sessions of Constructive Living can be found at the end of this essay:
And, all Mindset Shifts U sessions can be found here:
In Session 1, you may recall, we used a broad definition of lying. Let’s notice how we react when we realize we are lying to ourselves.
Improperly used, perspectives offered by Reynolds, Krech, and other writers considered at Mindset Shifts U may lead us to overestimate our ability to “engineer” change.
Oliver Burkeman has written of this engineering approach, “By definition, the only person who could ever engineer a New You would be Old You, with all his or her familiar issues.”
Burkeman adds this helpful metaphor: “In trying to erase our past selves, we become like Baron Munchausen in the old German stories, who tried to drag himself out of a swamp by pulling on his own hair.” I know I have tried, to no avail, the faulty change process Burkeman observed. As Burkeman points out, if we think we can engineer a new self, we will remain stuck.