Why is total self-control dangerous?

Constant self-control destroys our psyche, depriving us of our will

WHEN THE WORLD HAS CHANGED

When a person had nothing but a spear and dry tinder in a bag on his belt, he was freer. For thousands, tens of thousands of years, we had one concern: hitting the target with a spear. We easily left the camps, passing after the herds of nomadic animals, we did not make large supplies, because we could hunt all year round. The world was simpler, and most importantly, cleaner. In terms of information, including. We did not need to pass terabytes of information through ourselves, and we did not know information overloads.

Everything changed when, having abandoned hunting and gathering, people discovered agriculture. This is how our civilization began and the requirements for man himself changed. Today we suffer under the yoke of information overload, we are constantly required to focus and self-control. And ... that's why we don't have it.

Ten thousand years ago, after taking his prey, the hunter could afford to relax. And hunting itself is peak concentration at the moment of developing an action plan and at the moment of contact with prey. Relaxation in the search phase is welcome. Concentration was also required in the manufacture of hunting tools, but this is a drop in the ocean compared to what is required of us today. Society has become so complex that self-control is constantly required of us, and the potential of our will, of course, does not meet these requirements. Therefore, we easily fall into the network of dependencies, because the dependency object allows us to easily and quickly release the brakes, to forget, cutting down the will center and, accordingly, giving it a rest.

What did an ancient hunter do when he felt tired? He lay down under a bush to rest. Who is doing the same today?

DYSTROPHY OF THE VOLITIONAL CENTER

When a muscle is subjected to extreme stress, muscle failure occurs. When a muscle is overworked without rest, it is depleted and reduced. The same thing happens with the volitional center. There are studies that support the fact that people most often lose their composure after the practice of concentration, which naturally consumes the resource of will.

When people switched to agriculture, they became smaller and weaker in health. Because they began to lead a very specific and unnatural way of life, which obliges us to hunch over with a hoe under the scorching sun all day long. At the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, mankind first encountered the phenomenon of information explosion. Our plantation is the Internet with thousands of information layers. What will this form of overload give us?

The need to focus daily on a mass of diverse tasks turns the life of a modern person into hell. This is a life in which the heavy burden of intellectual and mental stress is almost never replaced by constructive relaxation. But we need willpower as a management tool, and not at all as a method of suicide.

Where to look for a way out of the situation? Certainly in the culture of thinking. In the culture of organizing work and leisure. It is important for us to be able to prioritize and understand exactly where volitional efforts should be made, and where it only hinders. In accordance with the law of rhythm, we must provide the volitional center with periods of concentrated work and periods of rest. Then the body will be able to use the supercompensation mechanism and provide an increase in will, and not its degradation.

The art of self-management is not a ride on an armored train. It is accurate calculation and grace of self-expression. We will remember this more often.