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Does the West talk about will power as much as we do?

The West not only talks about will power it inculcates its use among its people.

An excellent articulation of how to exercise will power is the theme of a Hollywood movie: "Revolver"

As I understand it, the exercise of will power involves "pain". You feel pain every time you do something that requires you to use your will power, to do something you don't want to do although you know it must be done or should be done.

Quote from the movie:
Person A and Person B talking to Mr. Green:

Person A: "Embrace the pain Mr. Green"
Person B: "If you change the rules on what controls you, you change the rules on what you can control"
Person A: "Just how radical are you prepared to be?"

Julius Caesar: "Your worst enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look"
Machiavelli: "War can only be delayed to the advantage of the enemy"

When you procrastinate or even worse deny that something important that must be done, has to be done, you are in fact making the 'enemy' stronger and you are becoming weak i.e. you are reinforcing a behavior in your self to 'not do' or 'to do what you should not' and it becomes harder to change. In fact the longer you take the more control you need to exert and therefore the lesser control you actually have.

The way out then is: Embrace the pain and work hard.

Comments

  1. ShahApril 1, 2008 at 5:03 PM

    awesome. i took me twice as much time to understand btw. nice thinking. KIU

    ReplyDelete

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