Detach the grim-o-meter
I'm betting that the last three posts have given many readers an incorrect impression about my demeanor. It's easy to read those posts and conclude that I must be a »
Choose without suffering
Imagine Eve, who works a service industry job. Her manager tells her, at the last minute and without warning, that she has to staff an event tomorrow in a town »
See the dark world
Consider fictional Carol, who has convinced herself that she doesn't need to worry about the suffering of people who live far away. She works to improve her local community, and »
Being unable to despair
Content note: these next few posts are not going to be for the faint of heart. Sometimes, when people see that their life is about to get a lot harder, »
Residing in the mortal realm
The last sevenish posts describe the main tools I have for removing guilt-based motivation. The common thread running through them can be summed up as follows: Reside in the mortal »
There are no "bad people"
When I help friends debug their intrinsic motivation, here's a pattern I often bump into: Well, if I don't actually start working soon, then I'll be a bad person. Or, »
Self compassion
Imagine a time when you were feeling guilt-wracked. Maybe a time you hurt a friend badly. Maybe a time you tried to do get some important work done, and found »
Where coulds go
Most people don't think they "could" cure Alzheimers by snapping their fingers, and so they don't feel terrible about failing to do this. By contrast, people who fail »