cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3190048

I’ve been languishing in my comfort zone. Continuing to do so will have terrible effects for me. To quote Marx, I “[have] become a monster, a huge mass of flesh and fat, and [am] barely capable of walking any more.” Ever since the pandemic started I’ve become a terminally online antisocial weirdo who barely ever leaves my room, let alone the house.

Of course, in addition to the damage this does to my personal life, it also makes me non - potentially even counter - revolutionary. As someone who wants to be a communist instead of just some internet poisoned middle class dilettante, I don’t know how I can be expected to jeopardize the comfort of my parasitic labor aristocratic class position when I can’t even get out of my comfort zone enough to go outside, eat real food, and do even the barest minimum of light exercise.

  • TheDialectic [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    You have to find something you want to motivate you. If you really truely want to just vibe all day that is what you will get. You have to want somwthing, to have some Intrinsic motivation to force yourself to move towards a goal. Which, in some way just vibing and taking care of yourself is important. If nothing else find a club to join. Just having a routine for getting out and having fun will start building your capacity to get out and do more. Play is important

      • TheDialectic [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        Is that the point I made? Let me try again. If they are feeling complacent and have difficulty going out they need to practice the skill of going out. They will probbably have to bribe themselves by going and having fun doing something they like. Eventually they will get good at going out and can use that practice to community stuff.

        Like, say they they go to sex parties. They get real good at talking to strangers in weird situations. They make new friends that are into sharing and cna be talked to about comunism. And they they can take their new sticky friends and their new found confidence to help form a mass line.

  • macerated_baby_presidents [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    The all-purpose suggestion is to make your “default options” the right choice. E.g. if I only have apples on hand, when I want to idly snack I’ll eat the apple instead of going to the store for cookies. You want to expend as little willpower as possible. Habit and routine help a lot but it is difficult to build that quickly.

    Last year I read The Flinch by Julien Smith, which is a shit book you shouldn’t read. But it has a good concept: a built-in propensity to flinch away from difficult things that becomes a general reflex. The feeling of not wanting to get into the shower, or not wanting to get out of the shower, or not wanting to get out of bed, etc. Smith says that this is a pretty general pattern of behavior, and if you can practice pushing through the hump in one area it will extend to other areas. Personally I’ve noticed that my mental state before I get into a cold shower does seem similar to that before I deadlift or do some other difficult thing.

    So in addition to the default options thing, I suggest you schedule one unpleasant but achievable thing in the morning. Maybe a cold shower. Anyone can start there. It can’t hurt you, it just sucks. There’s no reason to do it other than to prove that you can do hard things. But with that proof you will find it a lot easier to believe that you ARE a revolutionary communist and you can get shit done.

    • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      1·
      8 months ago

      Last year I read The Flinch by Julien Smith, which is a shit book you shouldn’t read.

      Lol, someone recommended that to me some years ago and while I still haven’t read it, somewhere from it I picked up hopping into my showers before they get warm. Not all the time, especially in the middle of winter, but most of them. It’s interesting how you can breathe yourself to a kind of tolerance if you just get in there and hold still under the cold. And then as soon as you move, you gotta deal with the shock again.

      No go, on the rest of the book though?