Dharma Curious (he/him)

Same great Dharma, new SolarPunk packaging!

Check out DharmaCurious.neocities.org for ramblings on philosophy and the occasional creative writing project!

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Joined 7 months ago
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Cake day: March 22nd, 2024

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  • The small goals part isn’t about setting goals you currently need in addition to what you’re already doing. It’s about setting goals you know you can reach with minimal or no effort. By doing that, you create a pattern of “winning,” of achieving. It can help translate into other areas by tricking your brain into wanting to set more and more goals.

    And career specifically is a tough one. Hygiene and food and shelter is all natural to us, but going out and working in an office or for a boss isn’t the natural state of the human animal. It’s something cultural we created for ourselves, and as such it can be a harder area to push yourself into in a lot of ways. It takes a different part of the brain, y’know?

    Depression’s a helluva drug, and it can make everything seem terribly difficult, but when it finds one area to really fuck you in, it can be so horrible to find any motivation. Especially in those areas that are outside of our evolutionary instincts. Have you considered speaking with a professional about medication? The meditation and the gamifying and such have helped me some, at the advice of a shrink, but medication is what got me through my early 20s. I’d be dead today without it.


  • Don’t sabotage Slef. He’s a good dude, who’s had a hard life.

    In all seriousness, though, I’d love an answer to this as well. It’s hard once you find yourself in a cycle of procrastination. You get used to allowing yourself to put things off, and it makes it harder to get back into the habit of doing them right when you should.

    A few things that help me:

    Do it right now. Remember that you left that important thing in the car? Haul your ass out there and get it now, because it gets trampled under foot and lost. Eat a bowl of cereal? Wash the bowl now, not later. Later doesn’t ever get here. There’s always more later when you think later is going to be.

    Meditation. Try it. If nothing else, you get a nice little break from whatever your normal routine is, which in itself can help you shake things up. 5 minutes of deep breathing and focus can do wonders. I’m not great at meditating, and sometimes I wonder if I’m even actually doing it, but 5 minutes of breathing is better than not doing 5 minutes of breathing.

    Set really small goals. Like, ridiculously sillily small goals. Goals you’d set for a small child. It will feel silly, and childish, and you maybe will feel embarrassed about it, but “I will brush my teeth” or “I will clean that dish” or “I will wash my face”

    They’re things you’re going to do anyway, but turning them into a goal gives you a sense of accomplishment, and allows you to get into a habit of completing goals. Gradually increase the goals, and gamify life. It makes you feel accomplished, gives you a sense of progression, and helps to set a pattern you can use going forward.

    I hope these things help, or that you find something that does.