Now before we jump off a building because we want to fly and embrace the hard pavement (fatally) because we have to deal with gravity, let's look at the OP again, so that we can reset our minds after the deraillment (or dopamine-feeding-frenzy, as a resident neuroscientists may call it) that is taking place here (I'll deal with the derailment (since it's not really a priority) later.)
Here is what the OP details about willpower in a metaphorical way:
You WANT to stay home.
You HAVE to go to work.
You WANT to be at the Racetrack.
You HAVE to be at the Doctors.
You probably WANT to hang out with a buddy, drink absinthe, and plan kidnappings.
But . . .you HAVE to do your Homework.
Actually - I don't really know what you HAVE to do - let alone what you really, really WANT to do instead. You tell me.
I WANT to be riding a KLR up the trail to Maccu Picchu right now.
I HAVE to get back to work at painting walls.
Your turn.. . .
P.S: Please, Keep it Clean, so everybody has a chance to express themselves.
Thanks.
This is all about '
Willpower' isn't it?
There are some things we like to do, desire to do, love to do,
want to do - but unfortunately they may run counter to what we dislike doing, should do, hate to do,
have to do.
Basically it's about what we'd
rather do, than what we're
obliged to do.
Let me detail a classic experiment on willpower conducted by the Standford University:
A group of four-year olds were presented with a marshmallow and told that if they wanted a second one, they would have to hold on to the first one for 15 minutes before eating it - a reward for exercising their willpower over wanting to eat the sweet right away.
Many of the kids did not wait long and gave in to their cravings, thereby losing out on getting the second marshmallow. Here '
want to' defeated '
have to'.
The test was conducted in the 60s, in various forms with the same group of children.
It turned out that when these indivduals were tracked later, that the ones who mastered their compulsions and acquired two marshmallows (thereby postponing the '
want to' with a '
have to' and multiplying their reward) went on to reach greater academic success as well as an overall better quality of life compared to the children who gave in to their immediate '
want to' and couldn't bother with the '
have to'.
To get back to my '
want to' smoke versus my '
have to' stop - it's now well over a month (not really counting since I have no craving at all - but I'll get to why that is later - when we have discussed some neuroscience) and I'm enjoying my new '
want to' - after having given in to my '
have to'.
Now, unless one is a 'smoker', people don't really have a good idea of what it takes to quit smoking. Non-smokers can be very blithe when it comes to discussing quitting, unless they, of course, have studied the effects of smoking - for instance a doctor or clinic worker involved in addiction control.
Smoking is a pleasure - and so, yes, smokers, (and I was one,) once they get addicted to the pleasure of that on-command dopamine hit, will reach for it over and over again. Scientists can make lab rats do it, till they starve themselves to death, only wanting to press that lever and get a hit of the nicotine, even having to starve to death to continue doing it.
But whats to stop us from wanting this pleasure? After all . . .
if there were no adverse effects, why should we stop? Why do we 'have to' stop?
Let me count the reasons why:
1: Nicotine is a natural insecticide.
2: Nicotine causes a change in brain metabolism and interferes with the cortical and sub-cortical regions of the brain responsible for the integration of expression of emotions with perceptions.
3. Nicotine causes long-term binding of the acetylcholine receptor site subtype inducing desensitization.
4. Nicotine causes adverse cardio-vascular symptoms such as increase in heart-rate and blood pressure.
5. Nicotine alters the firing pattern of neurons in the nucleus accumbens region of the brain.
There's more - but hold on . . . we're talking 'nicotine' here (the extremely addictive, and destructive compound in cigarettes) not '
smoking' - which is another thing altogether.
I had to stop 'smoking' - I wasn't chewing this stuff, or plastering a patch on my arm. What was wrong with smoking that I told myself that I
had to give it up, even though
I wanted to experience the pleasure of smoke?
Let's look at smoking:
Researchers have isolated some 4700 chemicals from tobacco smoke, but up to 100,000 more compounds wait to be discovered.
Here's a partial list of some of the compounds discovered (remember I said 4700 have already been identified):
Acetaldehyde,
acetone, aceturitetrile, acrolein, acylonitrile,
ammonia,
arsenic,
benzene, butylamine,
carbon monoxide,
carbon dioxide, cresols, crotononitrile,
DDT,
dimethylamine, endrin, ethylamine,
formaldehyde, furfural hydroquinone,
hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulfide,
lead, methacrolein,
methyl alcohol, methylamine,
nickel compounds, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide,
phenol, pyradine . . . and yeah, lots, lots more - I've bolded some of the more familiar compounds.
Did I mention a compound called 'nicotine'? A
more addictive substance than cocaine.
I
had to stop smoking.
They've also identified high levels of radium and polonium-210 in cigarette smoke - these are radioactive compounds - when we smoke we are basically inhaling Chernobyl. And building it up in our bodies. And brains.
Cigarette smoke also contains many poisonous burned plant resins ('tar'), which build up in the lungs.
There are also at least 60 known carcinogens in cigarette smoke.
Other compounds found in cigarette smoke result from herbicides, fungicides, and rodenticides sprayed on to the tobacco prior to harvest - as well as
machine lubricants that come into contact with the paper and tobacco as they move along in the manufacturing process.
As well as other compunds not intended for introduction into the human body that are in the various perfumes added to the tobacco to give cigarettes their distintive aroma.
Heres more 🤬 :
Up to 40% of today's average cigarette is composed of leftover stems, scraps, and dust, some of which is swept off the floor before being added to the tobacco. Where in 1955 it took 2.6 pounds of tobacco to produce 1000 cigarettes, the use of this 'filler' has made it possible to produce a 1000 cigarettes with only 1.7 pounds; this allows for a 44% profit margin.
There is also strong evidence to show that manufacturers add nicotine to the raw cigarettes, making them
more addictive.
Yeah - smoking this stuff basically fries your brain, alters your behaviour, hits you in the pocket-book, and is overall bad for health. Very good reasons, I would think,
to want to have to stop, eh?
But there are other reasons for which I
had to stop smoking - I wanted that wonderful 'fresh -air' feeling in my lungs again - the kind I used to talk about in the 'Veggies' thread. I had already stopped, and only restarted a year and a half ago, and realised recently that I
had to get that feeling back, and now after well over a month of non-smoking again I
have that feeling, as well as renewed energy, and a fresh zest for life - and no cynical curmudgeon reeking of unhappiness is going to prevent me from keeping it up - whatever the semantic skullduggery - so I don't really listen to people (smokers or otherwise) who taunt me into wanting to embrace smoking again (or the sidewalk for that matter from a hundred feet in the air.)
In fact, most of my smoker friends are amazed at my willpower in just stopping overnight, just making up my mind, telling them I was going to stop, and stopping.
Some of them of them have asked me the secret - and I've told them - and so some of them have really cut down, and I do have a strong feeling that many of them will just quit; the envy shows - and they want to get there themselves. I do encourage them.
More about willpower later - since my time is limited - but in closing -
do take charge of your life - start with the small things - willpower can be built up.
For a start -
use your non-dominant hand to brush your teeth every morning. Show your body who's boss. That's simple neuroscience for everyday living.
![Cheers! :cheers: :cheers:](/wp-content/themes/gtp16/images/smilies/cheers.svg?v=2)
H.