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Reading this stuff is always eye opening for me. but actually making it a part of your thinking and perspective is a whole other ball of wax. Often, I end up just forgetting entirely as the days pass - not the content, because I can often recite that upon demand. But the actual adoption of it into ones own mindset.

Very often, I've found myself going "oh yeah, i'm trying to do that!". Along with several other things as well. this is largely what drove me to build my project to adopt such changes in perspective (http://willyoudidyou.com).

And in addition to yourself, it's good to show compassion to others. But it's definitely easier to do this for others once you have done it for yourself.



For this, start small. My mindset on this sort of thing changed largely by taking up a sport (I'm a capable athlete, but not stellar). I screwed up a lot. Instead of beating myself up about it, I looked at each "failure" (by some metric, varied by sport) as an opportunity to learn. It's exactly what I'd tell a friend or child in that situation. Pick yourself up, brush off the dirt, examine what went wrong, try again. Ask others for help and feedback, it may be embarrassing at first, but it's better than making a fool of myself every time by doing it wrong or poorly.

Failure is an option, because we aren't perfect. We will fail, and how we carry on afterwards is the part that matters. Developing this attitude in one area will carry over to others. Professionally, I had a terrible habit of thinking (impostor syndrome) that I should know what I was doing, wouldn't ask for help, suffered from analysis paralysis, etc. This personal growth helped me out tremendously there.


wow, great advice for where I am right now, trying to launch a service. Lots of emotional ups/downs, opportunity for failure - which can, in the right light, be seen as an opportunity to grow. Asking for help from others... definitely something I am working on, and have gotten better about.

I find a lot of my hesitations disappear when it comes to my project. Shyness just isn't an option. You have to keep pushing it no matter what if you want it to be something. This has had some interesting side effects for me - seeing another, much stronger and resilient side of me come out to make my project a reality.

But yeah, baby steps are everything. Otherwise I just get overwhelmed or discouraged - but small wins can turn into bigger ones, and failure is certainly an option!

Thanks for the comment.


If you want to work on this the analog way, one thing that helped me is mantras. It's actually very simple - if you really want to hold on to something then boil it down to 5 words or so, and mentally repeat them until they feel like well-chewed gum. Repeat them every once in a while at completely random moments with no context, you're trying to generate a mental tic.

Eventually the thing you're trying to internalise becomes a mental habit, and starts to pop into your head all on its own at just those moments when you need it most.


Mantra's is a great concept, and I think you're on the right track. I think I've unwittingly implemented some of my own, like commitment. That is definitely something that i've tried to adopt.

But simple? I wish it were so, for me. My thoughts move in too many directions, and i can so easily deceive myself, that there were a great deal of things that were not just mantra but voices screaming in my head to do something that would rarely/ever get done. And attempts to undo them were themselves undone with time; which made it all just very stressful.

But you know, surrounding the concepts of behavioral and cognitive changes are a number of old school/new school concepts, such as this, that I think are worthwhile to explore more.

thanks for the thoughtful comment


> Reading this stuff is always eye opening for me. but actually making it a part of your thinking and perspective is a whole other ball of wax.

I think this is a good description of the effect of LSD.

A lot of the concepts that come up in your mind are things you have probably herd before, but in that moment you feel like you not only have understood their meaning, but also internalized it - attached an emotion to it so to say.

That's why I think it has such potential in psychotherapy: There might be a lot of useful concepts that you might have rationally understood, but actually 'discarded' them on an emotional level.


I've never tried drugs but the sudden emotional understanding you describe is all too familiar.


Looks like a neat project; that might help with forming some better habits for myself.

FYI, the top portion of the homepage is wider than my phone's screen, but I can't scroll sideways to read all of the text. Let me know if you want a screenshot...


It's helped me a lot. I'm much more consistently doing self-care habits i've struggled all my life to do. Of course, I still struggle sometimes to do it, but trending wise i'm much better off than i've ever managed.

Thanks for pointing out the display issue, I'll push up a fix!


willyoudidyou.com looks like an awesome project!


Thanks chris! I appreciate the feedback. It really helps to hear when faced with the indifference of the internet, for anyone launching a project.




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