Comments on: Becoming a Renaissance Man, Part 6

By: Praise And Worship CD

Praise And Worship CD — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:23:19 +0000

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By: Entropy

Entropy — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:32:19 +0000

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BLOG ON THE ISSUE OF DELAYED GRATIFICATION.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/bl.....iscipline/

By: CORRUPT.org: Remaking Modern Society

CORRUPT.org: Remaking Modern Society — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:15:14 +0000

The Procastinating Buddha Within Us…

I have previously argued that self-discipline is essential if you want to excel beyond the level of monkeys. But just how much does intelligence depend upon self-discipline, or how much self-discipline do you need to have in order to take full use of y…

By: pauliej

pauliej — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:02:11 +0000

The benefits of this can be seen in the early business adventures of Mark Cuban. Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://blogmaverick.com/2009/0.....otivation/

Pauliej

By: alphadominance

alphadominance — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:24:32 +0000

Excellent topic. I am reading Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” presently and it too addresses these topics. Success is far more than mere intelligence, in fact, intelligence is only really important in terms of a minimum threshold, aka, college grads tend to have IQ’s around 110 to 115. An IQ of 150 has little bearing on the ability to successfully negotiate college. It’s the concept of necessary but not sufficient with regard to achievement.

Most important to success in life is one’s ability to negotiate desirable outcomes in one’s life. A smart guy can languish in a back office and never be promoted, but his intellectual inferior who is still reasonably smart may become the CEO. “Social intelligence” trumps IQ in many aspects of success in life.

Gladwell addresses this fact by presenting the work of Lewis Terman who studied gifted children and found that factors other than IQ were far more relevant to their achievement in life. I’ve often thought that excessive intelligence can be a handicap in navigating the waters of career and social life in that it is often inversely proportional to one’s ability to relate to others. This is born out in the studies that children of average IQ have sex earlier and more frequently than the outliers on either end of the spectrum.

Sfer’s comment is very true, exhaustion, hunger etc. reduces willpower. Maintaining a structured life in terms of mealtimes, sleep schedule and exercise do wonders for discipline.

Willpower, like most other mental attributes is a function of discipline and mental rigor. If you have difficulty approaching women, or speaking publicly due to fear, you must face that fear repeatedly until you gain a level of comfort doing whatever the activity. If your memory or willpower are poor, you must challenge them and train them like a muscle to improve their performance. My model of the mind and brain is analogous to a computer. The brain is the hardware and ones thoughts, habits and attitudes are the software. The software can be retooled through disciplined action. It doesn’t come easy, but it is well worth the effort. One’s self-talk is hugely important in motivation. Change the chatter going on in your head and you change the outcomes to your endeavors. This is of paramount importance to the renaissance man.

By: China Blue

China Blue — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:31:44 +0000

Ohh, T, this was really interesting. I’ve not come across this concept (or the studies) before and being unable to delay gratification is definitely a problem for me. I can tell you now that being a gifted child did NOT help with my adolescent overeating and underachievement, even though I come from a happy, middle-class family. I’ll be practising these techniques for sure. Thanks for this.

Now I have a craving for marshmallows to go and deal with

China Blues last blog post..Lies, Damned Lies

By: T. AKA Ricky Raw

T. AKA Ricky Raw — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:39:15 +0000

Sfer, interesting take. So training willpower can be like exercising. Train rigorously and consistently but within reason and you build up power over time. But overtrain, especially too close to a time when you need to use your strength like lifting furniture or fighting or playing a sport, and you actually can have a detrimental effect on your functional real-world strength in the short term. Similarly, overdoing such mental training can actually deplete your willpower in the short term instead of strengthen it and leave you unprepared for events where you need to use it. Makes sense.

By: sfer

sfer — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:18:41 +0000

Watch out for this though:

Ego depletion refers to the idea that self-control or willpower is an exhaustible resource that can be used up. When that energy is low (rather than high), mental activity that requires self-control is impaired. In other words, using one’s self-control impairs the ability to control one’s self later on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion

It could be like lifting weights. It won’t help you if you are moving furniture latter that day but it will help you if you are moving furniture 6 months from now.

By: Martin Regnen

Martin Regnen — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:18:18 +0000

Good idea bringing up Iceberg Slim. Restraint and delayed gratification aren’t just for ascetics with boring lives.