Control vs Guidance

“Why can’t I make myself do this?”

So often, we can run into situations where we know something to be important to do, but cannot “make” ourselves do it.

A False Appeal to “Willpower”

Perhaps, we believe we do not have the willpower.

So we “try harder.” We can:

Yell at ourselvesPut our reputation on the line by announcing our intentionsInduce urgency by waiting for deadlines (real or fake)Hope that someone else will continue to remind us until we are somehow ready

But in such cases, we are ...