I grew up in an abusive environment, and have dealt with the process of unwinding C-PTSD for much of my life (now mid 30s). The environment I escaped is the type of environment that books about learned helplessness (a concept at the center of modern therapy) are written about. I mention this only to add context to my personal experience, and to highlight that the mindset I had to escape was ingrained from the earliest age. In short, there was little to no "supporting the development of agency", and in most cases, the exact opposite was true.
The process of therapy, whether that's CBT, ACT, etc. are all about making incremental changes that eventually all combine to rewire how you think and/or act. The entire therapy journey consists of these kinds of small changes along with active processing of past events to free up mental capacity. I'm highlighting therapy here because the related disciplines have been studied extensively.
The same concepts apply in other contexts (and are common in fields like software). Outside of traditional methods of therapy, practices like mindfulness meditation have been studied quite a bit, and there is a growing body of research on its benefits [0]. In particular, it seems to lower friction for hard things by helping you see more clearly the reality of why you're struggling with doing things, and why not doing them is often worse in the long run.
> I would challenge that from the getgo.
To clarify, what are you challenging, specifically? The idea that small changes are easier to execute than large ones?
This has been the subject of deep exploration across many walks of life, and on the personal improvement front is at the center of books like Atomic Habits, which itself is based on a foundation of research. The reason small changes work is that we absorb them into our daily routines until they no longer require active thinking to accomplish.
Part of what happens is that you also start confronting the bad reasoning you've been using to justify not acting. Embarrassingly, I had to re-establish basic habits like brushing my teeth. Clarity through mindfulness led to the realization that avoiding the tiny annoyance of doing this each day would be far less painful than the eventual dental issues I would otherwise suffer. I always knew that, but pausing to actually think clearly is what turned that knowing into a deep realization.
I challenge the assertion excluding a context that supports it (i.e. trauma, influence from others, other things of the sort) that you actually have agency to alter your behavior even in small incremental ways if you weren't already doing so as part of a larger motivation that is strong enough to override your existing behavioral patterns. I just don't think people actually have that control. In every case where I see someone change there's so many factors that went into it that just obviously would lead you to understand how it's intuitive that they would have done so.
> if you weren't already doing so as part of a larger motivation that is strong enough to override your existing behavioral patterns
How would you explain getting into the state of “already doing so as part of a larger motivation” in that case? The fact that people manage to get into that state undermines the premise of your challenge. If what you say is true, no one would rise to the level of “already doing”, which is an act that started at some point.
> In every case where I see someone change there's so many factors that went into it that just obviously would lead you to understand how it's intuitive that they would have done so.
This is called life. The causes and conditions of change are tautologically the reason that people change, yes. But is this a surprise?
If there is nothing to change or no reason to change, why would someone try?
By definition, if someone finds themselves in a position that would benefit from change, that falls under your “other things of the sort”.
The factors that lead to change are innumerable and different for each person. Some of the causes include exposure to new information. For me, I stumbled on some useful books like “Learned Optimism”, which details the history of the discovery of learned helplessness. It opened my eyes to some things about myself that I didn’t understand, and was one of many things that led to a change of mind.
Causes and conditions that lead to change include reading comment threads like this one. Exposing yourself to information that challenges your assumptions is another potent change agent.
yeah ive been told a million different view points by therapists and been in and out of it for years and have tons of internal strife over wanting to be way bigger than i am but im mostly externally motivated so it doesnt end up mattering at all.
The process of therapy, whether that's CBT, ACT, etc. are all about making incremental changes that eventually all combine to rewire how you think and/or act. The entire therapy journey consists of these kinds of small changes along with active processing of past events to free up mental capacity. I'm highlighting therapy here because the related disciplines have been studied extensively.
The same concepts apply in other contexts (and are common in fields like software). Outside of traditional methods of therapy, practices like mindfulness meditation have been studied quite a bit, and there is a growing body of research on its benefits [0]. In particular, it seems to lower friction for hard things by helping you see more clearly the reality of why you're struggling with doing things, and why not doing them is often worse in the long run.
> I would challenge that from the getgo.
To clarify, what are you challenging, specifically? The idea that small changes are easier to execute than large ones?
This has been the subject of deep exploration across many walks of life, and on the personal improvement front is at the center of books like Atomic Habits, which itself is based on a foundation of research. The reason small changes work is that we absorb them into our daily routines until they no longer require active thinking to accomplish.
Part of what happens is that you also start confronting the bad reasoning you've been using to justify not acting. Embarrassingly, I had to re-establish basic habits like brushing my teeth. Clarity through mindfulness led to the realization that avoiding the tiny annoyance of doing this each day would be far less painful than the eventual dental issues I would otherwise suffer. I always knew that, but pausing to actually think clearly is what turned that knowing into a deep realization.
- [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_meditation (linking to Wikipedia as a shortcut to the extensive references in the article if you're curious).