#Precommitment:

-I have drafts of two papers and the base code of another one with some promising results laying around on my hard drive for quite some time! Let's start working on them!

-I should dedicate my time to one and only one task/project, but it's almost impossible. So I'm going to spend each day of the week on just one topic: 1- writing papers 2- applying for Ph.D. positions 3- working on my deep learning coding skills :mastodon_oops: 4- improving my English spelling :thisisfine:

Hades.
#Photography #MEcfs #MEcfsRecovery #Precommitment.

It's become clear to today me that Masto has already fallen.

The problem isn't the #birdsite, #Twitter, the problem is people's behaviour around the world today.

I'd like to thank my 627 followers so much for pressing the "Follow" button, I really appreciated it. More than this, I found it healing. Thank you!!

I'm sorry to leave, but I can see that ME patients & dishonest researchers will hound me wherever go & I've had enough of it.

Am pleased to report a D grade in my health behaviour!

Why? Because it's better to know than to kid yourself. It's better to be accountable than to believe yourself to be perfect.

#Precommitment

Gosh my physio is tough, but I can't stop now without looking like a total loser.

Excellent.

#Precommitment

This week I corrected my bedtime and wakeup times and re-started exercise twice a day.

Yeah, the fact that my physio asked me to do these things and will be asking whether I actually did them, probably did give me the exact nudge that I needed!

#Accountability
#Precommitment

#Precommitment has some serious limitations.

Most importantly is that precommitment devices by definition bind our future selves to choices that we have already made.

This is a concern for we are given intelligence to determine the most appropriate action for our current context. If we bind ourselves, we program ourselves & become automata.

It's therefore important to confine precommitment to the smallest set of pre-decisions possible.

Healing Band-aids for the soul, not smothering blankets.

Every time you fail to stick to a #Precommitment teaches you how to better stick to them in the future.
Quitting #Smoking didn't just happen. I tried and failed, over and over, learning as I went, until one day I didn't fail.
I'd climbed up and out of the slippery well, and didn't fall back down it again.

My policy of check-mating myself into behaviour change this coming year is like New Year's resolutions on steroids.

Promises are weak.

Commitments are strong.

Accountability is, pretty scary, actually! Lol. I might have to actually do all this s***t!

#Precommitment

My physio has already set me two exercises per day and challenged two of my behaviours.

It's going to be a hard year, but so rewarding!!

#Precommitment

Without the very strong excuse of chronic illness I saw myself as a lazy man, but then, getting a physio means that I'm not.

Help! My identity itself is in flux!
#Precommitment

Today was a huge day for me. Both in terms of #Precommitment and in terms of my #MEcfsRecovery

I found a wonderful physiotherapist.

It's really amazing to me.

The idea that after 35yrs of illness, most of them spent without any hope of recovery, that I'm now so well that I'm able to commit myself to exercise for fitness and health.

And I'm back on the road to the London Marathon.

I just wish I could tell that guy with severe #MEcfs that he would eventually get better.

That would be cool.

Sometimes there's no neurosis, no complex tangle of thoughts to unravel and reveal.

Sometimes it's a simple case of bad behaviour.

I liked how cigarettes made me feel and the consequences of smoking seemed very far off.

So I ignored multiple sources of honest authority.

There was no inner turmoil, no oral fixation, no tight bundle of anxiety to probe at great time and expense.

I was just being bloody naughty!

Cigarettes harm and I used #Precommitment to free myself from my desire for them.

I read that the Catholic religion doesn't treat each of the seven deadly sins the same.

Whether we talk about these as sins, or as seven dangerous behaviours, there is one that's considered more important than all the others: Pride.

This is because, I think, without some degree of humility we can't hope to address any of our other flaws.

#Precommitment embodies this idea by acknowledging the fact of our weaknesses and planning head to avoid them.

You are of course allowed to pre-commit to relaxing restrictions, letting your hair down, and going wild.

Precommitment is about choosing to control your life. It's not all about self-discipline and denial.

As they say: "Everything in moderation, including moderation itself."

It's good to go Wilde occasionally! :)

#Precommitment

I was thinking about the #birdsite & what kept me there.

Other vices are obviously pleasurable: Eating, spending, etc. They all give a slug of dopamine as a reward.

But rage & wrath? They're just miserable really.

But it's a fight. It's a dopamine exchange. Like a football match: One set of supporters feel crushed, the others elated.

On #Twitter the fight, the tit-for-tat dopamine exchange has become more important than any of the subjects under supposedly under discussion.

#Precommitment

Having parcels delivered from Amazon makes every day feel like Christmas day.

Except, ironically, Christmas day.

#Precommitment
(...to consume less).

Medicine makes a serious error when it conflates function & misbehaviour.

Let me tell you two secrets!

When I was 11 doctors treated me as if I were lying: faking illness in order to avoid work.

Secret No 1: I was actually ill. I wasn't lying at all. My function was low, my behaviour was excellent.

After my #MEcfsRecovery I found myself sitting at the PC wasting time instead of working.

Secret No2: I was being lazy!! My function was high, but my behaviour was dreadful.

#Precommitment

Wants increase as we service them.

Needs decrease as we service them.

Therefore we should try to feed our needs and to starve our wants.

#Precommitment

Wants increase as you service them, whereas needs decrease as service them.

Therefore we should feed our needs and starve our wants.

#Precommitment

It important to understand that our judgement can fail us and that when it does, we won't necessarily know it.

People with bad judgement often judge their judgement to be good.

#Precommitment is a way of handling this eventuality, but first you must have the humility to recognise that you are capable of being wrong.

If we don't have this capacity, perhaps our judgement is already on the way out?