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Comment by mapcars | Hacker News Reader

> The first rule to become a gym beast is to believe you are a gym beast.

> That is: you need convince yourself that what you do is the best thing you ever do.

I think this is a dumb idea, a mix of wishful thinking and immature psychology. You become someone because of your competence, not of what you believe in.

We all want to do the best thing, but in practice in every project there are lots and lots of small, routine things that have to be done in order for the best things ever to even start functioning. I think its important to understand clearly what is the best, and what is necessary and see how each part contributes to the whole project.

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This is often discussed in Psychology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_it_till_you_make_it#In_ps...)

Regarding gym beast - it has few effects: - you eat bigger portions - you go to gym more often - you try harder (i.e. bigger weights etc.)

I can atest that this works _for me_, but using confidence to reach a goal is quite common.

> Regarding gym beast - it has few effects: - you eat bigger portions - you go to gym more often - you try harder

I mean there is nothing stopping one from doing all that without thinking "I'm a gym beast now". I feel that its more about breaking the mental structure one is used to, eg "I'm not good at the gym", in that case it might help, but I would argue that instead of replacing one with another why not drop it completely and just do what is needed for the goal one has set. If you do the right things the results will always follow.

You're not wrong. But only right in a "if you're homeless, buy a house" sense.

"stop having low self-esteem bro" is not an constructive advice.

We human are peculiar in that our perception of things (about ourselves) often affect the outcome. "it won't work anyway..." mindset when starting usually end up being a source of self sabotage. Probably somewhere along the line with protecting ego or creating surrogate objective such as "See it didn't work. *I* was right". Creating a vicious loop.

Blind optimism have shown, to many, is a good antidote. Some enforced enlightenment or rationalist talking points usually don't

Per Scott Adams' "Passion is Bullshit", what really helps with motivation is to succeed already. If you have good luck and your initial efforts pay off, you'll probably want to build on that. If you have bad luck and it all collapses, you'll probably want to stop. The lesson there is, I don't actually know. Try sometimes maybe but don't overdo it?

If you're reduced to the philosophies of Scott Adams, you're not succeeding.

Why's that? I read that chapter of his book and liked the idea expressed. You got a beef with Scott Adams?

Plenty of people have a beef with how Scott Adam has conducted himself. Are you unaware of his polarizing positions over the last decade?

Yes, entirely unaware. I had a hunch it would be that he said or did some terrible thing, but I don't suppose it diminishes the value of this concept about motivation, does it?

> You become someone because of your competence, not of what you believe in.

Important point is: You become someone to others because of your competence.

Others might (or might not) notice it, but the important thing is competence always gives you more options, more freedom in situations, in that sense you become "someone". Whatever other people might call it depends on culture, language, and so many factors.

> You become someone because of your competence, not of what you believe in.

And where does that competence come from?

From learning, a complex combination of theory, practice, attention, memory and whatever processes happen in the brain and body.

> I think this is a dumb idea, a mix of wishful thinking and immature psychology. You become someone because of your competence, not of what you believe in.

Shit works, it's not dumb at all.

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