“I don’t value W enough to do anything substantive about it”.
I tend to think instead “The cost of W is more than I can afford” / “I can buy the even-cooler Q for that price!”
It’s a lot like a financial budget: I can save up for a new computer if it’s important to me. If I’m especially rich, I can just buy one. If I change income brackets or values, it’s important to refactor that budget—if I lose my job, I probably can’t afford a new computer until I get a new job. If my existing computer breaks, I might put aside some normal monthly luxuries or dip in to savings to get it replaced faster.
Admittedly, I seem to be unusual in that I can internalize “I’m not willing to pay that price for that goal” very well, and I don’t tend to dwell on it or guilt about it once I’ve made a genuine decision. I’ve long been overweight simply because the benefit of eating pleasantly outweighed any visible gains. I used to feel some guilt, until I worked this out consciously and realized the price of being thin was just not worth paying. Now I’m quite content :)
(Although, ironically, soon after this realization, I got in to sports, and so now I’ve changed my values and have a very nice motivation to lose weight—which makes it far more bearable to sacrifice the pleasant eating :))
I tend to think instead “The cost of W is more than I can afford” / “I can buy the even-cooler Q for that price!”
It’s a lot like a financial budget: I can save up for a new computer if it’s important to me. If I’m especially rich, I can just buy one. If I change income brackets or values, it’s important to refactor that budget—if I lose my job, I probably can’t afford a new computer until I get a new job. If my existing computer breaks, I might put aside some normal monthly luxuries or dip in to savings to get it replaced faster.
Admittedly, I seem to be unusual in that I can internalize “I’m not willing to pay that price for that goal” very well, and I don’t tend to dwell on it or guilt about it once I’ve made a genuine decision. I’ve long been overweight simply because the benefit of eating pleasantly outweighed any visible gains. I used to feel some guilt, until I worked this out consciously and realized the price of being thin was just not worth paying. Now I’m quite content :)
(Although, ironically, soon after this realization, I got in to sports, and so now I’ve changed my values and have a very nice motivation to lose weight—which makes it far more bearable to sacrifice the pleasant eating :))