It’s day two and I feel as though I have nothing to say. Is it my dramatic mind seeking refuge from this early morning or am I really that dense? I guess I’ll talk about a book I just read. Or parts of it anyways.
But wait. Does anyone else start reading a book with fervor and then barely make it through to the end? It always seems so good in the beginning and like halfway through I’m like “Can you stop beating this dead horse with redundancy please?” And the answer is no. They will beat that horse for at least another 100 pages. Or in the case of ‘The Way To Will-Power’ by Henry Hazlitt, maybe it’s less… since the book is only 109 pages long.
Was it a good read? I think so. Certainly short enough for most to get through. I’ll be honest, he completely lost me when he launched a pointless chapter on Psychoanalysis. I understand why it was invited but cannot comprehend why it actually showed up.
So this book, as this title holds, talks about willpower. But not so from the view that willpower is a resource of the mind that is finite and renewable. No, willpower to Hazlitt is really the ability to overcome competing desires in order to hold one singular purpose until it has become habitual and the knowledge surrounding it has been mastered. I like this. It was simple and doesn’t give power to terminology and concepts like most psychological texts.
Hazlitt holds that humans are ‘bundles of desire’. Desires big and small constantly jockeying for position in our minds. He posits that a common man struggles to keep his most illustrious resolutions in the face of small and impetuous ones because he failed on two accounts when making said resolutions:
- He did not secure in his mind the total value of achieving the resolution and preparing himself with enough vigor to fend off his dopamine-addicted monkey brain.
- He did not clarify the price to be paid for gaining the resolution
This makes sense to me because I feel like I am always making resolutions from regret or from panic. It’s not that I don’t desire them but I never seem to make them with a balanced mind. According to Hazlitt, we must find ways to build our desire towards a resolution and create the tools to reaffirm the greatness of that desire on a frequent basis to prevent competing desires from dethroning it. He also believes that before engaging in the act of pursuing a great desire we clearly state what we must give up so as to know what to avoid and how to avoid it.
Let me use an example from my last brilliant entry – my three ‘resolutions’ – to alter my aesthetic, change my mindset, and learn videography & filmmaking.
Building My Desire:
- Achieving these resolutions will improve my life in the following ways:
- I will feel more confident about my physical appearance allowing me to engage in behaviour or activities that I would normally avoid due to insecurity. Things are as simple as sitting outside on the deck with my shirt off without feeling like a half-melted ice cream cone or chopping wood on a camping trip without fear that my blubber is wriggling like a bucket of freshly caught eels. Is this enough? Let’s try one more:
- If I improve my aesthetic, my 14 years as a trainer and many thousands of dollars in education will hold more value in the mind of common men because I look the part. Let me make this clear, I’m no slouch. I still look better than most men my age. But the narrative seems to be that if you aren’t 4% body fat with capped shoulders and a bundle of pulsing veins firing out of every square inch, you don’t really know what you’re talking about.
- I will respect myself more for following through with the things I have held in great importance for many years but have continuously failed to do. This will empower me to share the knowledge I have on various lifestyle and creative topics that I have acquired over time without feeling like an imposter.
- I will be able to take control of my lifestyle and work schedule by adding this skill that is in high demand. This means that I will no longer have to take photography or branding jobs that I don’t want to do just to pay the bills. I truly don’t think that there is anything more important than being able to dictate your own day. Why?
- Because my mornings are sacred. I hate being rushed and there’s nothing I want more than to start my day slowly without the feeling of impending doom.
- Because I want to snuggle my dog and fuck my woman – at very separate times – without being pinned down by someone else’s obnoxious, ever-changing schedule just to put food on the table.
- Because I’m not terribly friendly when I’m feeling forced. I’m actually downright ornery and then I procrastinate the shit out of every little thing. This is no way to live. And I can think of 3 projects that have been sitting on my desk for two weeks now that I haven’t even bothered with. First, they don’t pay shit. Second, I resent their existence.
- I will feel more confident about my physical appearance allowing me to engage in behaviour or activities that I would normally avoid due to insecurity. Things are as simple as sitting outside on the deck with my shirt off without feeling like a half-melted ice cream cone or chopping wood on a camping trip without fear that my blubber is wriggling like a bucket of freshly caught eels. Is this enough? Let’s try one more:
Okay, that’s not bad. Desire is building. I can feel it in my loins. Is it enough to get me through the day? Enough to drag me out of bed at 4:45 am for the next 90 days so I can write these silly messages to the void before breaking myself at the gym and working for 7 hours without food or my coffee treat? Fuck, I don’t know.
I basically covered the ‘price’ of my resolutions in yesterday’s article but to recap:
- I have to eliminate social engagements because I only do those when I drink. I’m not a talker. I just don’t know what to say. It’s seldom anyone holds the same interests as me and I’m definitely not interested in sports or the latest detective show. So I drink – to fake it all. This one actually seems like an upside.
- I have to eliminate junk food and treats. I feel like if I tape the snack to my stomach for 30 minutes before I try to eat it, it will almost completely lose its appeal. And until I have rippling abs, I don’t think my girl will struggle to avoid licking it off either.
- I have to give up my lame excuses for everything. Set a plan, stay the course, and fucking get there!
- I have to give up screen time. And really, if you delete social media and have less than no money to shop online, your phone becomes pretty fucking useless. I don’t call anybody. Who calls somebody?
When I put it like this the price seems pretty low. It ‘SEEMS’ pretty low I said. But in reality, these stupid little things crop up and tempt you like a naked buffet of supermodels who are saying the sweetest things about your imperfections. But as Hazlitt reminds us, we must not give in to even the smallest temptation. Allowing your resolutions to be dethroned is the worst form of self-disrespect and it will set you back tremendously if not derail the whole process.
I must endure.
I must take a nap.
I’m going to take a nap.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
B