Train your will with small tasks that have no other purpose

Choose one small, ordinary task you would rather not do, and do it the same way each day for about a week.

Perché funziona

In The Act of Will Assagioli describes "gymnastics of the will": deliberate acts done with no purpose except training the will, so that the will is exercised apart from the other functions. He quotes William James advising "little useless exercises every day," and reports Boyd Barrett's method of short, precise, repeated tasks. Each task is kept for several days, usually a week, and then replaced so that it does not become automatic.

Come farlo

1. Choose a small, ordinary task that you would rather not do, and that has no purpose except training your will.
2. Do it alone and undisturbed for a set time, about ten minutes, each day for about a week. Assagioli reports Barrett's examples: standing on a chair for ten minutes, getting up and down from a chair thirty times, or moving one hundred matches or bits of paper, very slowly and deliberately, into a box.
3. Afterwards, write down the sensations and mental states you had during the task.
4. Then replace it with another task, so the practice does not become a habit that runs on autopilot.

Prove scientifiche

The Act of Will describes these as the "gymnastics of the will," in chapter 4, "The Strong Will" (the "Useless" exercises are on pp. 37-40). Barrett's examples are quoted by Assagioli from Barrett's book Strength of Will and How to Develop It. The method is a practitioner description; no outcome test was found. (anecdotal)

Barrett's list also includes repeating "I will do this" aloud. That is a repeated affirmation, so it is left out here. Stop a physical task if you feel pain, faintness or dizziness. Do not use a task to punish yourself, or to override a part of you that is signalling exhaustion or distress; if pushing through leaves you flooded or cut off from yourself, talk it through with a trained therapist.

Fonti

• Assagioli, R. (1973). The Act of Will. Viking Press.

Errore comune

Doing it grudgingly or fast. Assagioli says the manner matters most: it should be done "willingly, with interest, with precision, with style."