Dr. Kentaro Fujita

I'm using that in plural because it's not just the one why I want to lose weight.

but it's I want to be healthier, I want to be a good example for my kids, I want to show that I can do this, I want to become the better me, all these different motivations.

There's no reason why resolving a self-control dilemma should be a fair fight.

Why should you give the temptation a fair one-on-one challenge?

Instead, I think you're kind of highlighting that growth, self-discovery, confidence, self-esteem, all of these other things can also, if we can leverage them,

we can become much more powerful against the temptation because we just find additional sources of motivation to push through the things that we really don't want to do.

And ironically, it's an upward cycle because the more you do it, the more positivity you experience.

And so it's sort of a virtuous cycle.

Whereas you can also imagine the opposite.

If you give up,

Then you say, I'm not capable, and all those motivations start to collapse.

I'm not going to become that person.

I'm not going to grow.

I am the person I was worried about.

You can just sort of hear this negative self-talk, and you can see it becoming a negative downward spiral.

So I really find what you're saying really interesting, like not just the phenomenon, but to really focus on it and say, like, I'm doing the hard thing not just for the one goal, but because I want that dopamine rush.

I want it.

You know, I want my system to learn how to take this on, and I want to prove to myself that I can do it.

As I said, it shouldn't be a fair fight.

We should stack the deck in our favor.