War is deception
A little late in putting this post in today but it’s got to be the 8th somewhere in the world still, right?
I have been slowly reading the Art of War for a while now and I truly believe that there’s a lot of value in every page that I’ve read so far. There is a lot of profound insight about success and winning.
One point that I really took into heart is this: war is deception. Make the enemy think that you’re on the move when you’re still; make your enemy think that you’re still when you’re on the move. Be unpredictable and be one step ahead. I mean that’s great when it comes to waging war but how can I apply this to myself, I thought.
I pondered about it and realized that we are all at war — against ourselves. We constantly fight ourselves and drain our willpower to do the right thing, even to the point of self-sabotage sometimes. From the book Willpower Instinct, which I am also slowly reading, there is this thing called moral licensing.
It’s basically this: we tend to gain progress at something then believe that the effort is good enough to excuse ourselves to do something relatively bad, like cheat days. For example, doing a 30 minute run on the treadmill gives us the leeway to eat a piece of chocolate. The feeling of progress makes us feel good as if we’ve achieved our end goal already. It’s our inner enemy.
I thought the concept of deception definitely applies in this case. How can we deceive ourselves to make us believe that we aren’t making good progress when we really are? The answer I came up with is today’s improvement:
Stop talking about my goals and progress to others.
When we stop talking about what we want to achieve, about our dreams and how much hard work we’ve put in, we will have less chances to pat our backs for doing a good job. Of course, it is okay to share it to others when asked but only do so in the humblest manner.
Always believe that you are never there yet and that you are focused on putting the work in every day. Avoid thinking that you deserve a treat for doing a great job — indulge only in things because you love them and they truly make you happy. At the end of the day, the idea that we deserve certain things is just a human construct. You work hard on taking what you can and that’s all there is to it.
