- La Rochefoucauld, Maxims
The purpose of new year's resolutions seems to be an artificial way of overcoming our weaknesses. For we already know what we need to do, but have been too weak of will to do so. By wiping the slate figuratively clean, that is, by acknowledging that the past (year) is gone, we try to give our will a boost. While resolutions can be of value, this is probably the wrong way to go about it. What is needed is training; like weightlifting, if we train ourselves in small things we can eventually strengthen ourselves for larger things.
Thus, William James had a more hopeful view of our weaknesses than did La Rochefoucauld.
Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day. That is, be systematically ascetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test. Asceticism of this sort is like the insurance which a man pays on his house and goods. The tax does him no good at the time, and possibly may never bring him a return. But if the fire does come, his having paid it will be his salvation from ruin. So with the man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and when his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast.The contrast betweem James and La Rochefoucauld may be likened to that between optimism and pessimism; but it should be noted that James's optimism is quite restrained, requires real effort, and therefore is much more realistic than the generic optimism which our uplifters of today urge us to adopt. James uses the word "asceticism" in the passage above, wholly appropriately, as the root of the word is askesis, "training".
New year's resolutions are an almost proverbial exercise in futility, easily made and quickly broken. But if they can give one a needed start toward the kind of training that James advocated, perhaps they're worthwhile.
Resolutions are a good way to make the desired behavior more likely.
ReplyDelete1. Saying something out loud makes you more likely to do it; the thing now exists outside your mind - it has been unleashed on the universe, given independent existence; thinking something but not doing it is no biggie - saying you'll do something and not doing it makes you a liar/unreliable/etc.
2. Saying something out loud in front of others makes you even more likely to do it, since now we have witnesses.
3. Writing something down is another improvement; now the word has permanent, tangible existence.
I'd wager that Rochefoucauld would agree with James; he'd say that if you find James' advice appealing (and have the desire/capacity to follow it), then you weren't weak to begin with, so there was nothing to put right. (cf. Nietzsche: "To demand of strength that it should not express itself ... makes as little sense as to demand of weakness that it should express itself as strength.") (Basically the opposite philosophy of the modern world.) Another fitting Nietzsche line re: James' advice: "the most valuable insights are the *methods*"
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog, Dennis. I'm sure I'm not your only regular reader who appreciates the energy you put into it on an almost daily basis. (If you need to take a break we'll understand!!). Happy New Year.
Svigor, good points and I agree.
ReplyDeleteScott: Also good points, and thank you for saying what you did. happy New Year!
"Saying something out loud makes you more likely to do it; the thing now exists outside your mind - it has been unleashed on the universe"
ReplyDeleteLOL very new age - I am sure the universe will punish you if you can't keep your word.
I admit I almost always make them, mostly reasonable ones; also that I don't keep them for as long as I should.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog, Dennis.
Ditto. Your blog is tops and very much appreciated, Dennis. All the best in the new year.
I resolve to spend less time reading and posting comments on the inter-- Oh, wait.
ReplyDeleteI’d like to offer my huzzah! as well. Dennis, your site features outstanding analysis and a witty, rollicking commentariat—and all for a very reasonable price. I’m sold.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding blog, Dennis. I have long held that there is a significant amount we, as white westerners, can do to address our personal situations regardless of the overall political climate. Thanks for the blog and best wishes for the New Year.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Dennis. Thanks for the always-interesting blog.
ReplyDeleteYes, Mr. Mangan, thank you for your blog. May you have a blessed New Year.
ReplyDeleteMDR
Thanks, everyone, it means a lot to me to hear it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Traveller about the comment by svigor. Svigor's statements can easily be abused by New Age people. 'Unleashed on the universe'? 'Given independent existence'?
ReplyDeleteAbout writing: if anything I write too much! I write so much on what I want to do and why it would be good to do it, that I don't arrive at doing it. Writing sure is a lot easier!
Point 2 is certainly ok, and least susceptible to New Age distortion. It would help not to just say to others what you want to do, but find people who want to do the same thing and do it together.
"What is needed is training; like weightlifting, if we train ourselves in small things we can eventually strengthen ourselves for larger things."
@ Dennis: thank you for this very interesting post. I highly recommend you to read the book 'Willpower' by Roy Baumeister. Or at least read about it on the net.
@ Dennis: I was looking for other mentions of Baumeister on your blog, and found that the blogpost at http://mangans.blogspot.com/2007/10/more-watson.html 'does not exist' (anymore)?
ReplyDeleteI wish you a happy and prosperous New Year, Dennis.
ReplyDeleteI can only echo what others have already written. Excellent Blog. One of the best anywhere on the web.
"Saying something out loud makes you more likely to do it; the thing now exists outside your mind - it has been unleashed on the universe"
ReplyDeleteLOL very new age - I am sure the universe will punish you if you can't keep your word.
It's got nothing to do with the universe. It's got to do with psychology. And the idea that words have power is roughly as old as civilization.
I agree with Traveller about the comment by svigor. Svigor's statements can easily be abused by New Age people. 'Unleashed on the universe'? 'Given independent existence'?
Uhm, again, words have independent existence, in the psychological sense, and in a certain physical sense as well. New age has nothing to do with it, at least AFAIC. Thoughts have physical existence, but as of now they're private and not measurable. Vocalization gives a thought existence outside the self. This doesn't seem complicated to me...
Not that I'm really willing to fight about this. Hey, don't believe or use the ideas, no skin off my nose.
That quote from James is gold. I think my Dad lives by this code.
ReplyDeleteYou have an excellent blog. Best wishes for 2012.
Tim.
It depends what La Rochefoucauld meant by weakness. Clearly we can build our physical strength, to a point; we can also exercise our willpower and mental faculties, to a point. But cowardice seems to be intractable. I have traced the key failures in my own life to failures of courage.
ReplyDelete(I'm not especially cowardly. Nor am I unsuccessful. I just think a greater appetite for confrontation would have put me on another level; or left me dead, of course.)
Gilbert Pinfold.
Svigor is right, though the main thing is not that "the universe" becomes aware of your resolution, but that people you respect are aware of your resolution (and will lose respect for you if you fail to fulfill it).
ReplyDeleteLook, the universe doesn't care about what you say because the universe doesn't care, period. But put away your rational, conscious mind for a second. [i]It's only a fraction of your psyche[/i]. Your "lizard brain" or "subconscious" or whatever you want to call it, [i]does[/i] believe that the universe cares. It's innately superstitious. Karmic. Whatever. We're talking about your behaviors here, not the bloody living universe.
ReplyDeleteDamn codes and aging brain...
ReplyDeleteThe universe doesn't care that you did the HTML tags wrong. =)
ReplyDeleteOT (totally, apologies for that, but I can't resist)
ReplyDeletePeople who think The Daily Mail is some sort of reliable anti-establishment truth-teller ought to check out their ongoing coverage of the very recent verdict in the "racist murder" (use of the modifier is mandatory it seems) of Stephen Lawrence. They're really going apeshit, and seem to be trying to out-BBC the BBC. One would think white racist murderers were (still) the UK's biggest problem.