Rigid Rules

Notes

Claim

Rigid rules are when we impose on ourselves a rule with a type of ultimatum like "never" or "always", something that is always in effect no matter the Actions and meaning depend on situational and environmental circumstances. An example could be "I never watch tv".

Explanation

The advantage of a rigid rule is that it's easier cognitively to maintain than "I rarely watch tv" because the Flexability allows us to make excuses why "just this time" it's okay to break it.

Why it Matters

As time passes, our motivation shifts from Intrinsic motivation drives action through internal alignment and passion (the reason we set up the rule) to External motivation crowds out intrinsic drive and sustainability (maintaining the streak), which is problematic on it's own, even if the rule is maintained.

Examples

Supporters

Opposers

The downside of rigid rules is that once broken, they usually lead to the Breaking a streak kills all motivation effect. The same force that motivates us to maintain the rule - the Momentum is movement that builds self-reinforcing forward action of not breaking the chain is also it's downfall. Once a chain has been broken, it can't be restored. If you lost a streak of 2000 days on Duolingo, there's little chance that you'll have the motivation to continue studying as if nothing has happened.

Open Questions

Visual

Overview

🔼Topic:: Self-Regulation and Change ↩️Origin:: 🔗Link::

==⚠ Switch to EXCALIDRAW VIEW in the MORE OPTIONS menu of this document. ⚠== You can decompress Drawing data with the command palette: 'Decompress current Excalidraw file'. For more info check in plugin settings under 'Saving'