Colin McEnroe Show: Willpower
You won't be able to resist!!
Published: Jan 09, 2012
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howthebodyworks, Flickr Creative Comments
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The Colin McEnroe Show: Willpower
Last night I had a terrible dream about a show in which this thing you're reading now -- we call it the billboard -- didn't get done the right way, because I didn't write it correctly nor did I allow enough time to fix it. And there were similar problems, in the dream, with Wolfie's introduction, all caused by my failure to make myself do the daily writing load in a timely fashion.
This is a problem in real life. If I get these things ready an hour before show time, the day goes more smoothly for everyone and Patrick's chances of digesting his lunch increase dramatically.
But I often finish them at the last minute, and this a could be read as a matter of willpower.
We often see our unhealthy impulses as natural and our strategies for improvement as artificial.
But maybe my dream was a way of telling me that I have a natural capacity to do things the right way. I'm just out of communion with it. Anyway, I wrote it on time.
***Today's show was produced by Betsy Kaplan***
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I wound up home sick & got to listen to the whole show while in bed. Really interesting show today. Maybe an idea for an additional show on this – does will power extend from the individual to the community level? I live in the northend of Hartford for the past 9 years & one of my observations as someone who has lived in other types of neighborhoods is that I see many more of my neighbors here (& many housemates – I live in a community house w/ young people from the neighborhood) who seem to have a real lack of willpower (inability to control diets, to look for work, to stop destructive behaviors, to finish school, etc). I have wondered if it may be my upbringing/training/culture that has resulted in me having some tools in my toolbox that just isn’t there w/ some of my neighbors/housemates. Are there external factors that contribute to this (i.e., gov’t programs that effectively reduce will power, etc.), & if so, should our focus be not so much on training an individual to ‘think differently’ (much of today’s discussion) but on our society to make changes in these external factors that reduce will power in the individuals living in these communities? I have my own theories, but wonder if there have been studies about will power – or lack of it – in whole communities or neighborhoods.
Thanks for putting together good programming
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