[oiumqler] Changing yourself

A generic template:

1. X
2. Changing X
3. Your ability to change X
4. Your desire to change X

Both 3 and 4 are required to accomplish 2.

Substitute X = "something about yourself" into the template.

5. Something about yourself
6. Changing something about yourself
7. Your ability to change something about yourself
8. Your desire to change something about yourself

As before, 7 and 8 are required to accomplish 6.  Item 8 is psychological in character.

Next, the interesting part: recursively substitute X = (Item 8) into the template.

8. Your desire to change something about yourself
9. Changing the desire to change something about yourself
10. Your ability to change your desire to change something about yourself
11. Your desire to change your desire to change something about yourself

Assume that you are low on item 8, so cannot accomplish 6.  Read 9 through 11 as increasing that low desire, changing in a positive direction:

12. Your low desire to change something about yourself
13. Increasing your low desire to change something about yourself
14. Your ability to increase your low desire to change something about yourself
15. Your desire to increase your low desire to change something about yourself

Items 14 and 15 are needed to accomplish 13 and therefore 8, which is needed to accomplish 6.  Item 14 is interesting.  Do people have this ability?  Under what conditions do they have it or not have it?

The situation is: you are presented with a seemingly overwhelming rational argument in favor changing yourself, but you are unable to do it, and more specifically, unable to even want to do it.  What is the nature of the opposing force?  How does it operate?  How did that force come to take residence in your psyche?  Why do our brains function this way; why was it evolutionarily advantageous?

That force may define identity, not merely the things you can't change about yourself, but the things you can't even want to change about yourself.

Previously, a concrete example.