Assuming Control

There are many moments in our life when we just don’t feel like doing something, and we start making excuses. I’m tired today, I’m busy, I’m not motivated enough. I’ll do it tomorrow. We make tons of excuses. There are times when we are objective, calculative, and logical. We know that working out is good for us. We know that eating healthy is good for us. And yet when the time for us to execute those thoughts has come, we just don’t feel like doing it. Making new habits is hard. Sometimes it works, many times it doesn't. Why do some efforts work out, and some efforts just fail miserably? What is the difference? Did I not work hard enough? Why? Why didn't I work hard enough? This is a scenario you can also come across in Sam Harris’s book called Free Will(2012), where he argues that our traditional concept of free will just doesn't make sense, and I find myself agreeing with his ideas.

If only our primal parts of the brain that rebel against our logical reasoning could be kept under control of our logical part of the brain. What if our prefrontal cortex could exert certain power over our primal parts of the brain such as the amygdala? What if our conscious mind could control the degree of our motivation, emotion, happiness, and such? Now you won’t have to make excuses as to why you didn't do your workout today. Why? Because you will have done your workout, just like you had planned. What if you don’t have to be lonely, or sad, or depressed, or angry, when you don’t want to, as you have made the conscious decision that being in any of these emotionally unstable states is not a preferable state to be in?

Perhaps certain brain implants in the future will enable me to have conscious control over my emotions, motivations, and primal thinking.

Simply put, I want more control over myself. Full control over my body and mind. Or as much control as possible.