Influencing Yourself

I have to remind myself that I’m suggestible. Lots of the time when we think about this in it’s in a purely negative sense, like realizing the effect that propaganda and advertising have on your thinking (not that this makes you immune to them.)

But it’s not all bad. You can try to influence yourself into getting the things done that you want to do. It’s obvious, but things like music will influence your mood. Since we’re constantly being marketed to by outside forces, we may as well be conscious that we can try the say thing ourselves.

I don’t always do this, but I find it helpful whenever I do. For instance, when I’m trying to write creatively, I like to read at the same time; some other kind of story, but one that requires my input to continue, like a mouseclick to spacebar to advance the text.

While I read, I have something other than the actual words I’m writing that I can focus on. It helps get words down on the page. I don’t necessarily get very far in what I’m reading either, but it’s distracting presence ironically helps me focus. It’s probably just my own eccentricity.

What I’m programming, the same thing works. I’ll have some video I’ve been meaning to watch and code for an hour, but only get 5 or so minutes into the video.

I guess what I’m trying to express is that your body and mind are not really on your side. You often have a common interest, but they’re selfish and unreasonable. Try and see if you can’t influence them to help you.