The Marine Corps has two maxims that I find useful in beating akrasia:
-If you can’t get out of it, get into it.
-False motivation is still motivation.
If you have to do something, you might as well find a way to make it fun (even if its a stupid way). Being ridiculously overenthusiastic about whatever it is you don’t want to do is often enough to make the activity enjoyable. In the Marine Corps, this usually amounts to Marines yelling silly sounds at the top of their lungs or doing things as fast as they can or in a overly exaggerated manner, but I can attest to the fact that the maxims work well in the my rest of life too.
At 1st read the 1st maxim struck a cord in me. On 2nd thought, the 1st part, “if you can’t get out of it”, seems to be encouraging avoidant behavior. If I rephrased it to be more in line with my goals, it would be something like, “if you’re doing it, get into it” but it doesn’t sound as clever that way.
It is encouraging avoidant behavior, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Given a job you don’t want to do at work? See if someone will trade with you; they might not mind it so much. Assigned a task for what you consider a bad reason, like covering someone’s a**? Come up with a more productive solution and try to convince your boss. Trying to “get out of something” isn’t negative; sometimes it just means convinving others to use common sense or pooling your resources (time, effort) with someone else.
The Marine Corps has two maxims that I find useful in beating akrasia:
-If you can’t get out of it, get into it.
-False motivation is still motivation.
If you have to do something, you might as well find a way to make it fun (even if its a stupid way). Being ridiculously overenthusiastic about whatever it is you don’t want to do is often enough to make the activity enjoyable. In the Marine Corps, this usually amounts to Marines yelling silly sounds at the top of their lungs or doing things as fast as they can or in a overly exaggerated manner, but I can attest to the fact that the maxims work well in the my rest of life too.
At 1st read the 1st maxim struck a cord in me. On 2nd thought, the 1st part, “if you can’t get out of it”, seems to be encouraging avoidant behavior. If I rephrased it to be more in line with my goals, it would be something like, “if you’re doing it, get into it” but it doesn’t sound as clever that way.
It is encouraging avoidant behavior, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Given a job you don’t want to do at work? See if someone will trade with you; they might not mind it so much. Assigned a task for what you consider a bad reason, like covering someone’s a**? Come up with a more productive solution and try to convince your boss. Trying to “get out of something” isn’t negative; sometimes it just means convinving others to use common sense or pooling your resources (time, effort) with someone else.
That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for taking the time to re-frame it that way.