Life In 19x19

DrStraw referenced in a previous post that people sometimes don't do what's good for them. Maybe they should be out exercising for their health, for example, but instead watch TV or something because it is easier to do.

Doing what is best for you even when it's not easy seems to require willpower.

What do you think? Do you have willpower? If you do, how did you get it?

No, or I wouldn't post on here.

At least not in the off-topic forum. And I'd definitely stay away from arguments if I had willpower.

I have some, but I still procrastinate a lot. What is good for me isn't always what I want to do.

Im not sure that I agree with the premise that having willpower equates to doing what is good for you. When I first learned the game I played and studied it for hours at a time. That certainly required a lot of willpower because there were certainly many other things I could have and should have been doing and many of them would probably have been better for me than hiding away with a go book and board.

Having said that, I will say that, yes, I do have willpower. I probably could not have reached 5 dan without it. But fortunately I have reached a point in my life where I don't have to exercise it as often as I used to have to.

I guess there's no secret to having willpower, right? "Just do it", as they say...

Kirby wrote:I guess there's no secret to having willpower, right? "Just do it", as they say...

Practice seems to help? When I make myself do something hard, for a while it's easier to do other things similar. For example, I recently stopped drinking soda and coffee on weekdays, and it seems like, since then, I can easily turn down other things.

DrStraw wrote:... because there were certainly many other things I could have and should have been doing and many of them would probably have been better for me than hiding away with a go book and board.

...

By the way, DrStraw... Why would other things have been better than hiding away with a go book and board?

Willpower can be used for useless pursuits, but it seems necessary for many worthwhile ones.

I wish I remembered more details, but I think there was a study that had people exercise willpower for a few weeks on something (good posture, perhaps) and then tested them on apparently unrelated tasks afterwards--they showed more willpower than the control group.

I think I have more willpower than most people. I've stuck to an exercise regimen (with some changes, e.g. to make time for my kids when they were born) for 20 years now. And I tend to finish software projects that I start...there's a lot of people who start great projects then run out of steam before it's done.

But I also procrastinate too much. Like by posting here when I should be working.

I don't have will power, I am totally at the mercy of the whims of the universe

I just do what's best for me in the long term. For example last year I quit my job out of the blue because I am not progressing as I had wanted. After that I headed down the contracting/temping/locuming route inorder to find the job I wanted. After about 6 month I got one. Having some willpower made the whole thing eaiser. It helps to block out the negative voices.

I not sure whether you call that willpower or risk taking or both. I think part of it is deciding what to do and just doing it regardless. It also helps to calculate the risks of each action beforehand and playing Go definately helps with that.

Kirby wrote:

DrStraw wrote:... because there were certainly many other things I could have and should have been doing and many of them would probably have been better for me than hiding away with a go book and board.

...

By the way, DrStraw... Why would other things have been better than hiding away with a go book and board?

I don't remember. It was 35 years ago.

DrStraw wrote:

Kirby wrote:

DrStraw wrote:... because there were certainly many other things I could have and should have been doing and many of them would probably have been better for me than hiding away with a go book and board.

...

By the way, DrStraw... Why would other things have been better than hiding away with a go book and board?

I don't remember. It was 35 years ago.

Do you have any regret now?

the answer is simple - no