11 Working yourself ragged is not a virtue

Replacing Guilt

"Part 1 was about replacing the listless guilt: if someone feels vaguely guilty for not really doing anything with their life, then the best advice I can give is to start doing something. Find something to fight for. Find a way that the world is not right, and decide to change it. Once the guilt is about failing at a specific task, then we can start addressing it.

Part 2 was about refusing to treat your moral impulses as obligations. Be wary of the word should, which tries to force an obligation upon you. I recommend refusing to do anything just because you "should": Insofar as that sets you free, the obligations were false ones. Insofar as that sparks fear that something important won't get completed, seek out the cause of the worry, and complete the task because you want to see it done, rather than because you "should."

However, having something to change in the world and being free of false obligations is not anywhere near enough to replace guilt motivation. In fact, I think that most guilt in most people comes from a different source: it comes from people honestly deciding that X is what they want to do and then finding themselves not doing X anyway."

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Original post: http://mindingourway.com/stop-before-you-drop/

Find Nate Soares at http://mindingourway.com

Find Gianluca Truda at http://gianlucatruda.com

Replacing Guilt is written by Nate Soares and produced, with permission, by Gianluca Truda. The theme music is a remix of Algorithms by Chad Crouch.