How to Get Your Brain to Do Things

That's Philosophical #20

Oct 20, 2021

Welcome to That’s Philosophical, the newsletter that wants your brain to do things. Once a week, I send you inspirational ideas to become a more mindful person in a world that can’t take a break.

You can read the web version here.

Sometimes we just don’t want to start anything, the only choice is to force ourselves with willpower. But willpower itself takes a lot of energy, and there are better ways to use these resources.

When I decided to cut off sugar from my diet, I took a mindset approach. Instead of designing my environment and forcing myself to ignore sugary food, I implemented this thinking:

Sugar is the absolute worst thing I can eat, that’s why I just don’t need it. Sugar only provides short-term pleasure at the cost of long-term problems. I will save money, get fitter, make my skin look better.

The goal was to resist the temptation. But focusing on the symptom is ineffective. That’s why I entirely removed the temptation with my radical mindset. And now I wasn’t wasting my energy on willpower.

A study by Marina Milyavskaya and Michael Inzlicht on self-control found that people with the strongest willpower are those who use it the least. These people design their day to minimize distractions and difficult decisions.

“Our results suggest that the path to better self-regulation lies not in increasing self-control, but in removing the temptations available in our environments.”
- M. Milyavskaya

This means that in order to have more energy, you need to remove temptations entirely. It is either done by adjusting your mindset or designing your environment. A good mindset will save you time and energy on choices. Decision fatigue is real.

Do It Without Thinking

Another method I use to start doing anything if I am lazy is spontaneity. This works perfectly if you want to get out of your comfort zone, but you don’t feel like it. Spontaneity is the easiest cure for overthinking and turns out, I’ve been using it a lot without me noticing it.

If I am thinking about going out for a run, the more I think, the more I am likely to not go. What if people will laugh at how I run? What if they find out that I am just pretending to be a runner? What would they think of my T-shirt?

When I notice that I am in an overthinking mode, I tend to just go and do the thing. It’s easier that way. I go out for a run and see if my worries were true. None of them matter after you actually do the thing.

In one of the previous issues of That’s Philosophical, I talked about the Stoicism principle that basically says that most of our suffering is in our heads. In reality, the situation might not be that bad, but the story we are telling ourselves may be terrifying.

Same thing here, what are the downsides of going out to run? Mostly just time spent, which I would have spent on something less important anyway.

I believe that if you think whatever you want to try is somewhat interesting for you, you should go for it. Often, mistakes are not that hard to get over and you will learn valuable lessons from them.

I started new hobbies, met people, and had genuine fun in my life with spontaneity.

I started writing spontaneously. I had a lot of worries, concerning my abilities, knowledge, and other aspects. But after more than a year it's clear that all of my worries didn’t matter at all.

When you actually start doing the thing, you understand how insignificant your worries initially were. This experience made me realize that overthinking is pointless. It only wastes your time that, in a worst-case scenario, could be used to make mistakes and find out if it was worth it firsthand.

However, in some cases, you have to think about what you are doing. If you want to buy a new gadget, it doesn't mean you should spontaneously buy it. It’s financially irresponsible. If the decision has the potential to change your life, then of course you should think it through.

The Takeaway

Mindset is sometimes all you need to complete anything. The spontaneity mindset is incredibly powerful because it doesn't require any energy from you and it's often a liberating experience. An experience that makes you realise how much control you actually have over your life and how you can change it with correct decisions. Remember that you will be bad. Allow yourself to be awkward when you start something new.

I think that the anxiety we feel before starting mostly comes from overthinking. Stopping it is almost impossible, not letting it happen in the first place is practical. If you start something before you start overthinking about it, you are not giving yourself time to give up.