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Originally Posted by Undertoad
I don't think it's all that possible for one to will ones' self to be psychologically different.
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But I'm not suggesting you should will yourself to be psychologically different--quite the opposite. I'm suggesting that if you force your behavior to change, even if your psychology totally doesn't agree with it, then the psychology will change on its own after the behavior is in place. I think this is why a lot of people do well on diets that have unnecessarily strict rules, because it means that they don't have to work to make the "right" decision every time an opportunity presents itself. Mr. Clod had a coworker who figured out a rather silly set of rules that worked best for him: he stocked a bunch of fruit in his house, and nothing else. There was a Wendy's near their office, and one near his house. The rule was, whenever he was hungry he could go eat a cup of Wendy's chili. That was it. He could have chili, or fruit at home, or nothing. He didn't actually like fruit, his plan was just to make himself sick of the chili so that he would simply eat less food. But of course shortly into this process, the fruit started tasting really fucking good. He started bringing it to work and having some at his desk too, though he still ate a lot of Wendy's chili. Over time he was inspired to add vegetables at home, then allowed himself to make chili at home, but vegetarian only, etc... Ultimately he dropped from about 350 pounds to under 200. Anyway, the point is he artificially forced his behavior to change so that he didn't have to change his psychology. By the end his self-esteem was through the roof without even trying to address it.