2.0: ADDICTIVE TRAPS

Listed below are six traps that interfere with the exercise of will; you will be more vulnerable to some than to others

 The PIG – The Problem of Immediate Gratification: Motivation is much more influenced by the immediacy than by the magnitude of the pay off – the incentive.

 Perverse Motivation [Also known as counter-regulatory motivation] – Psychological quirks that cause people to act differently than they say they want to. For example: Reactance: As soon as there is a restriction there is a perverse motivation to violate the restriction – especially if you are forbidden something that is not forbidden to others.

 The Karma of Behaving Badly- You don't pay for your sins in the next life you pay for them during this life, because whatever choices you make become stronger with exercise. With enough practice the sequence of events that leads to the incentive can unfold by itself, and it now requires conscious effort to interrupt. Your path of least resistance is your Karma. The Karma of repeatedly violating commitments is dependence – that is, you lose control over this aspect of your life.

 Recursive Traps – Paul Wachtel described this trap in as few words as possible: "It is often possible to discern a structure to people's difficulties in which internal states and external events continually create the conditions for the reoccurrence of each other."

 Attachment - Some people fail because they don't care enough to perform well, and others fail because they care too much about outcomes to perform well.

 Dependence – If your happiness or unhappiness depends upon something you do not control, you will become its slave. You remain a slave by waiting for someone else to free you.


Completing the Trap Detector - click the heading: 2.0 Addictive Traps - will help you identify the traps to which you are most vulnerable so that you can focus on the urgent issues first.