>>34326050
i will reply with reading recommendations.
>Is desire pointless?
no. its so not pointless in fact that the entire field of psychology comes from wanting to understand its origins. The book Beyond the Pleasure Principle by Freud investigates what could be the basest desire we have. The essay A Theory of Human Motivation by Abraham Maslow outlines the theory of needs and how they cause us to want. (this has been watered down to pop psych bullshit)

>Is it better to just do things because you know what it would lead to becoming the version of you you want to become?
Sometimes! The Psychology of Transference by Jung talks about Individuation (paragraph... 400 or so? iirc) and how it not only benefits the individual but also society as a whole. Kurt Goldstein is the guy who developed this into the concept of self actualization: Individuation, Uniqueness, & Holism.

Uniqueness might be bullshit, its the idea that your only instinctual reason to keep in living is for self actualization but the other two are important.

Individuation is the idea of becoming a whole individual. its lowkey the final boss of growing up. You have to understand yourself, and to do that you need to recognize the things about yourself that you imagine in others, then realize how that affects your disposition toward them. then you need to accept that this disposition os toward yourself, and you need to love yourself and accept those things and so on.

Finally Holism is the real important one after you individualize, the idea here is that you are a moment, aomute, an hour, a week, a year, a decade, and a lifetime. you are an individual, a couple, a group, a family, a community, and a society. you need to learn to recognize that you indeed are all of these things.

whats this relate to doing shit you know is what the person you wanna be will do? well obviously its how you recognize those things. fighting the urge to allow yourself to regrees is what aids in these things.

>>34326050
>Anyway is this normal?
a healthy dose of it is.

>Should I just ignore all desire and try to force myself to act a certain way?
Again, sometimes.

>Almost certainly not right?
correct.
you might be looking at the ethical issue of autopilot. one approach is the expression of free will. can you act according to your desire? can you act against it? doing both is perhaps a good exercise of free will. Another point of view is hedonism: is the pleasant good? lets say yes for the moment. okay, so should you work out? its somewhat unpleasant, so perhaps not. but alas! the health benefits, a longer life, a better quality of life. ease of movement and the aid of strength and cardiovascular health. makes other activities better, in short, the pleasures might outweigh the pains. developing skills is always painful, so you must consider what you hope to gain from such skill, if the pleasure outweighs the pain, hedonism suggests its good to do it.

okay from a utilitarian pov, you should contribute to society and try to live a good life, forcing yourself, despite desire, to do that which benefits you and society writ large is the moral thing to do.

from the deontological pov you should never consider desire when considering action, as all moral behavior is driven by duty.

and from the virtue ethics point of view, honing your virtues and ridding oneself of vices is how you live a happy life, and acting out of pure desire is gluttonous but acting never once out of desire is stingy, a balance must be struck.

all in all it seems you should do that which will benefit your life long term, but you should also leave room for your desires and enjoyable things. you have limited time in this life, spend some of it on joy.

hope this helps :)

>Should Desire Fuel Decision Making
no. your (free) will should fuel your decision making

>>34326050
you know I struggle with the same thing

what I have found is this:
you generally only do what you desire
but there are moments of introspection and steering
i.e. very fleeting moments

in those moments you should make commitments
for example schedule something that your desire systems can't override

for example, booking a trip, scheduling a date, etc etc.
things that override your desire systems / autopilot and things that bring you closer to your actual goals

For example I have the goal of going to the gym, or taking photographs
If I just do as i desire, my day will be spent just surfing the web or scrolling on my phone

but there are 10-15 miniutes of my life in which i can schedule a personal training session, or schedule a photoshoot with someone
that commits me
and forces me to act no matter what


basically use your 10-30 minutes of will power to make commitments that force your autopilot to adapt

>>34326050
>Should Desire Fuel Decision Making
Dude, desire rarely doesn't play a part in decisions.

>>34328647
That makes a lot of sense actually
I usually find myself doing this the night before if it happens or maybe like right when I sit down at my pc
Maybe some sort of journaling would help but I think it runs to risk of turning into some sort of quota I’d have to achieve, but either way I can try
It would at least help externalize my wants
>>34327009
Very informative ty

I wonder if it’s better to get things done by planning and going towards them or by trying to mitigate or ban certain behaviors habit and activities that prevent you from getting things done, waste time, or make your mind wander

.

I’m starting to believe that I’m actually just the biggest creature of habit imagineable
It’s like all I know is what’s immediately in front of me
That’s why I think of these ideas of forcing myself to do things

>>34326050
I have long term and short term things I do. The long term ones are maintaining physical fitness and continuing developing my videogame project.
The short term ones are constantly in rotation and there are breaks in between where I just don't enjoy them at all. Like playing guitar, going to dance class, meeting friends for some activity, drawing, cooking etc.
I used to punish myself for losing desire to all of these things and jumping one to the other or sometimes just having months of doing nothing and not progressing on anything but just eating out and playing videogames.
I think these periods are both okay and they're essential for me to regulate myself.
I feel that desiring doing stuff and enjoying them is never consistent and cannot be.
>>34328647
This anon has good advice. This is like having a breakup and instantly removing her from all sorts of communication before you have any second to think, so that when a few weeks pass and you miss her, you cannot act ouf of intense desire because it will hinder your progress of moving on and becoming a better man.

>>34335875
Well it feels good to know someone shares my emotion
Perhaps I’m also viewing every thing I do as a life changing thing despite just being a short term thing, emphasizing it too much
Some form of consistency would be nice cause some of these breaks are crazy but whatever

.