I've waited to write this article while the rash of first of the year, new resolve promises settles down. Evidence of quick and often dramatic intentions of lifestyle overhaul is everywhere. I watched fearfully as newcomers to the gym bolted to machine after machine expecting and unfortunately "doing" the impossible - the 100 pound abdominal crunch, the whir of legs on the treadmill, Atlas-sized weights given the heave-ho. Yikes! "Health food" stocks refrigerators; speed limits rule; alarm clocks ring at dawn; workplace etiquette blossoms; notebooks and to-do lists stand at the ready in college dorms. Things will be different immediately...and forever. Really?
I call on John Stuart Mill every January, one of my best friends from 19th century England. Revisiting his philosophy invigorates me every time. Put those barbells down, I imagine him warning, and do some mind-building first. Making character adjustments holds enormous potential; but, bone- honest reflection is a prerequisite and it's hard work. What has anyone ever accomplished in one day? Mill disdains the quick fix mentality. He asks that we look at where we are, how we got here, and where we want to be. Countless students benefit from Mill's straightforward, pragmatic plan for self-improvement. Child philosophers recognize the likelihood of fewer visits to the principal's office. Adults glimpse a sure-footed though lengthier than anticipated path to a better life. Let's sit with him; let's sit with ourselves.
Mill serves up his philosophy. Today, the choices you make are determined by the person you have become. There is no escape from your character...today. The causal link between character and action is unbreakable...today. No flukes and zero chance to make different choices...today. Mill's sobering philosophical approach is an example of "soft determinism:" while I can't alter my direction today, I can change my character and thereby make different decisions in the future. But what about this character that I have created? He demands that we investigate this person with vigor and with hope. Character determines every choice and "while our character is what it is, our actions are necessitated by it." Choices stay the same unless the person changes.
Now we must brave that uncompromising look in the mirror. Mill refuses to hear cries of "I don't know why this keeps happening to me" or "Circumstances conspire against me." We always act according to our "strongest preference." Always, without exception, we do what we want. To end the relationship and all that accompanies the dissolution, to move to a new town, to transfer to another college, to discontinue credit card use, to tell my employer the truth and deal with all the repercussions...we do what suits our current character. "When I say preferred, I of course include with the thing itself, all that accompanies it." So, even self-sacrifice counts as the primary preference - I helped a friend move rather than go to the concert because I opted for the pleasure that comes with service and avoided the discomfort of guilt. Each of us is a product, and temporary prisoner, of our "moral antecedents," our "desires, aversions, habits, and tendencies," and if we try hard to decipher them, we can slowly shift these tendencies and customary behaviors. Hmmm...if my today-self prefers being the last-call life of the party, sleeping late and awakening to procrastination, letting my temper fly, wallowing in self-pity and ignoring responsibility, losing friends and jobs with regularity, then count on this: my today-self will continue to act according to these preferences... until, in contrast, I associate pleasure with: being in bed by 10pm, rising early and doing what needs doing, controlling my foolish anger, facing myself and others with candor,sustaining relationships, and honing a work ethic. Changing ourselves requires penetrating understanding of who we are. Mill even suggests that if we understood fully these "moral antecedents," we could predict our future. Whoa!
Now, he encourages, swivel slowly towards change by facing ingrained habits and desires and finding genuine satisfaction in switching course. Hooray! Today I found "happy hour" walking my dog. Wow! Today I completed that blog that has been waiting to be written. Yes! Today I called someone and said I'm sorry. Hey! Today I didn't play computer games at work. How about that?! Gradually, wise choices become more likely. Those "moral antecedents" hold the key; changing them changes me. My strongest preferences reap rewards now; decisions feel different...evolving... deep-down satisfying.
Mill is convinced that people want to be happy and that the key ingredient of happiness is personal freedom. And oh! What if we fully understood that we are not free unless we consciously choose who we are? Our freedom lies in the lifelong job of creating the character we want to be; then and only then can our choices spring from free-range living.
What about those New Year's resolutions? In the long run, slow and steady wins the race. The spa of philosophy calls out for a mental manicure and an emotional peel. As our own personal trainers, we can lift our lives high, starting with tiny weights and getting stronger every day, cementing the traits that lead to good living. Mill took great consolation in the human capacity to recognize what needs changing and our willingness to take on the challenge. Our minds are incredibly resourceful. Anything is possible...tomorrow.
I'm wondering. How much strength can we muster to welcome character creation as a task with no end? Is "just a little bit better" quite awesome some days? Listen! The person I am today is responsible for writing these words. And, today, you chose to read them!
