veronikawithak
Well-known member
I came across a great blog post today and thought I'd share for those of you who might be interested in the psychology of willpower: Controlling self-control.
It's a little jargon heavy.. but it basically summarized a study where researchers asked participants who were faced with a choice between an impulsive and more conscious decision (they used healthy vs unhealthy food items) to either (a) be mindful of the conflict between their immediate desires and the future consequences of their choices or (b) be mindful of the behaviors needed to reach their specific goals. They found that being mindful of the behaviors rather than the consequences was more effective.
I want to adapt this to my own goal (having a smaller, well-edited stash of favorite products). Being mindful of the consequences would have me thinking about the initial rush of purchasing products vs the long term success of lowering the anxiety of knowing I won't be able to use anything up and the feeling of being overwhelmed. Being mindful of the behaviors would get me to think about things I needed to do to reach my goal like buying fewer items, trying to use items up or pass them on to others if they don't work for me, checking for dupes, making wishlists to delay purchases, etc. A lot of these are things we've already talked about here which is great!
This could work well for dealing with collection launches too.. instead of assuming that I'll have the willpower to skip items and then being caught off guard, I'm going to start assuming that I'm going to be weak and cave in! Then I can go into it prepared with lots of exit strategies. I made a list of behaviors that would help me reach my goals in that area:
- Avoid being sleep-deprived or emotional when purchasing.
- Take in potential dupes from my collection and compare them in store.
- Try on items in store.
- Keep an inventory of how many items of each category I have and look at it before purchasing.
- Keep a list of how long it takes to use up an item with daily use (3-6 months for a lipstick, 1 year for a blush, etc.) and look at it before purchasing.
- Avoid collection threads on days where I feel emotional. If I start to feel anxious in those threads I'll do a "detox" by watching declutter/project pan videos until I feel strong in my goals again.
Hopefully that will help me keep things under control!
It's a little jargon heavy.. but it basically summarized a study where researchers asked participants who were faced with a choice between an impulsive and more conscious decision (they used healthy vs unhealthy food items) to either (a) be mindful of the conflict between their immediate desires and the future consequences of their choices or (b) be mindful of the behaviors needed to reach their specific goals. They found that being mindful of the behaviors rather than the consequences was more effective.
I want to adapt this to my own goal (having a smaller, well-edited stash of favorite products). Being mindful of the consequences would have me thinking about the initial rush of purchasing products vs the long term success of lowering the anxiety of knowing I won't be able to use anything up and the feeling of being overwhelmed. Being mindful of the behaviors would get me to think about things I needed to do to reach my goal like buying fewer items, trying to use items up or pass them on to others if they don't work for me, checking for dupes, making wishlists to delay purchases, etc. A lot of these are things we've already talked about here which is great!
This could work well for dealing with collection launches too.. instead of assuming that I'll have the willpower to skip items and then being caught off guard, I'm going to start assuming that I'm going to be weak and cave in! Then I can go into it prepared with lots of exit strategies. I made a list of behaviors that would help me reach my goals in that area:
- Avoid being sleep-deprived or emotional when purchasing.
- Take in potential dupes from my collection and compare them in store.
- Try on items in store.
- Keep an inventory of how many items of each category I have and look at it before purchasing.
- Keep a list of how long it takes to use up an item with daily use (3-6 months for a lipstick, 1 year for a blush, etc.) and look at it before purchasing.
- Avoid collection threads on days where I feel emotional. If I start to feel anxious in those threads I'll do a "detox" by watching declutter/project pan videos until I feel strong in my goals again.
Hopefully that will help me keep things under control!
