Control me! Me!

Ever feel like you are not the one controlling yourself?

Rest assured.

You are NOT the only one who has trouble being in control of yourself!

I know, theoretically it sounds more than ridiculous that you are not in control of yourself, even though you are yourself's! However, in practice, we know this is the case for most of the people around us (if you feel too shy to include yourself, let's put it this way).

http://www.spring.org.uk/images/selfcontrol2.jpg

But after reading this post today, you will learn that it's not really fair to blame yourself after having eaten two family size pizzas, played tetris for seven hours straight, or slept the whole day without doing anything.

- Well, maybe that is a bit too much. But anyways, let me explain why you have totally lost control of yourself and did something you would usually not.

It's because of the nature of our SELF-CONTROL!

Yes, by right, we were born to lose control! But only after you've depleted the resource, the control resource. 

I was totally fascinated with this concept since I encountered it in lecture because it could explain my sometimes (are you sure?) odd behavior of just totally letting it go and spending the time as the most loose person on earth. 

Really interesting thing is that, self-control is, in fact, supposed to be depleted when it's been exhausted. So it's only very natural to be out of control after having finished your control fruits in your control basket, right?

But just because it's a consumable energy, don't be so disappointed. It's not the end of the story.
Encouraging side is that you can train it just like a your muscle. Or your train. Or lame lime light lemon? So the more you consciously try to prolong the attention span, you will succeed, eventually.



 So here are some of my tips in dealing with self-control:

1. Give your self sufficient break in between work, or study or whatever that requires your deep focus and attention so that you can somewhat restore it to meet the spending.

2. Try focusing a little longer every time. Don't start with ambition. Start with maybe, focusing really hard for 15 minutes. And then, take a rest for say, 20 minutes. And continue it until you reach 45 minutes work and 15 minutes studying ratio. 

http://removeyourlenscap.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/selfcontrol2.jpg

So I hope after having read this post, you were comforted and encouraged to control your control! However, on my side, I must have used too much focus writing this entry. I feel disgusted to follow those very tips I wrote up there. 

Anyways, at least good luck to you guys!


 

Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivation

I learned something pretty interesting from Social Psychology class today. 

The study was on 12 year-old children who were asked to play with markers. (yeah, I don't know what's the deal with markers. But I guess they don't know what's the deal with  bags either.) They were divided into three groups: control, certificate-aware group, and certificate-unaware group. The researchers measured the length of time the kids played with markers. 

http://www.ripleys.com/weird/files/2013/01/marker-installations-heike-weber-9.jpg

1) Control group was not told anything in particular and were just left alone to play with markers.

2) Certificate-Aware group was told that at the end of the session, they will be given certificate for having played with markers. Probably marker-efficiency certificate, or something. How cool.

3) Certificate-Unaware group was not told about certificate but were given them anyways at the end.


Guess which group(s) played the longest with the markers? 


They found out that Certificate-Aware group played the shortest with markers.



* The implication of the study:

Here, certificate stands for extrinsic motivation, which means motivation that comes outside from oneself.
Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, would be motivation that comes from within, in this case, pleasure of playing with markers. 

Thus, this study shows that when we do something for the sake of external reward, instead of our own joy, we quickly lose interest. 

http://stellachua.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Motivation.jpg

Does this mean that getting a job for money and for pleasure cannot converge into a midpoint?

I don't know, to me, it sounds like it, and honestly, it's rather depressing. As people always say, you can't be too idealistic nor realistic. 

Then, what should I live for? Probably the answer's already out there. But maybe I'm just too inclined to stability and safety to look in that direction for now, wherever that may be.