Wednesday, January 22, 2014

No Way Out

Odysseus may be the oldest example in literature of what modern psychologist call commitment devices.  (Baumeister & Tierney, 2011) (Arrian, 2008) (Ainsle, 2001) (McGonigal, 2012)  The several publications referenced in the preceding sentence are great place to start to learn more about commitment devices.  All of these references in some fashion recommend the technique of Odysseus for assisting one with their self-control or self-discipline challenges.  For those of you not familiar with the Odysseus and the Sirens myth,
“A siren call means something that is alluring. It is dangerous and potentially deadly. Even if you know better, the siren call is hard to resist. In Greek mythology, the sirens who allured were sea nymphs beguiling enough to begin with, but with even more enticing voices.
In Odyssey Book XII Circe warns Odysseus about the dangers he will face at sea. One of these is the Sirens. In the adventure of the Argonauts, Jason and his men faced the danger of the Sirens with the help of the singing of Orpheus. Odysseus has no Orpheus to drown out the lovely voices, so he orders his men to stuff their ears with wax and tie him to a mast so he can't escape, but can still hear them singing. This painting shows the sirens as beautiful women-birds who fly to their prey instead of luring them from afar.”  (the quote is from the following website; http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/odyssey1/ss/062508POdyssey_6.htm)

Of course this technique can be used for more than warding off tempting Sirens.  Over the last several years I have used this concept to overcome all kinds of unproductive habits and I have also used it to make myself stay on task.  Like most of you, I’m easily distracted and without some kind of commitment device, I will go down all sorts of Black Holes searching for the proverbial rabbit.  To prevent these unproductive rabbit hole searches I have created my own ‘commandments’ or ‘go to hell’ rules.  I treat my rules as sacred and a make it a matter of personal integrity that I abide by them.  For instance, I’m currently in a Doctorate program that requires that I read and write a substantial amount.  I really don’t have the luxury to wait around for inspiration for either activity, so I require myself to spend at least 5 hours each day on each activity.  My rule is simple and it was stolen from Stephen Pressfield (The War of Art), when I’m writing I’m allowed only two options; write or do nothing.  That means no phone calls, facebook, email, etc…  It suits my personality very well, because I can’t just sit there do nothing and eventually I just start writing to overcome the boredom.  I also personally track and record it every day in my little ‘judgment’ (as in standing before God type of judgment) book to ensure that I’m maintaining my integrity.  I apply the same principles to a host of activities from what and when I eat, to physical exercise.  The combination of a commitment device and keep a daily ‘judgment’ book of how well I kept the commitment has significantly impacted my ability to develop useful habits and raise myself to just above the level of a useful idiot.  In my next post I’ll discuss my ‘go to hell’ rules for diet.
From todays ‘Book of Judgment’
Weight: 163
Fasted: 19 hours
Read: 6 hours
Wrote: 5 hours



References

1 comment:

makutdaf said...

WOD for today

C2 Concept Rowing Intervals
15 Rounds
30 seconds work and 30 seconds rest

Snatch
10 rounds EMOM
135 x 4