I intellectually understand that (libertarian) free will is an illusion that emerges from the subjective experience of thinking about counterfactually having done something else at a specific moment, but I still often catch myself feeling bad about past mistakes, imagining how I could have done something else as if it had been an actual literal possibility at that time.
I’m sure it’s not uncommon at all, but I feel like it’s not the best way of framing those memories from the point of view of improving oneself.
It seems that imagining oneself as succeeding is often used as a ‘substitute’ for actually succeeding (even if it doesn’t feel nearly as good), which might not help to motivate oneself.
I intellectually understand that (libertarian) free will is an illusion that emerges from the subjective experience of thinking about counterfactually having done something else at a specific moment, but I still often catch myself feeling bad about past mistakes, imagining how I could have done something else as if it had been an actual literal possibility at that time.
I’m sure it’s not uncommon at all, but I feel like it’s not the best way of framing those memories from the point of view of improving oneself.
It seems that imagining oneself as succeeding is often used as a ‘substitute’ for actually succeeding (even if it doesn’t feel nearly as good), which might not help to motivate oneself.