Tapas
Tapas (in Spain) are bar snacks.
Tapas (in the yoga tradition) is a willpower-building exercise.
Both are amazing, but this article is about the second, because so many people claim that they would like to have more willpower. Well, most people actually say “I don’t have will-power” as an excuse for their failure to live a better life, but for the rest of you, tapas can be your new best friend!
The basic components of a tapas are
- a commitment with yourself to do something, or not to do something
- clear specific rules to define “success” and “failure” to keep that commitment (including a full list of exceptions!)
- a specific time frame; a week or a month usually work best, at least initially
You can of course choose to take on a commitment that is “good for you” (visit the gym 3 times a week; give up chocolate for a month) but it’s essential to remember that what you choose as your tapas is secondary. Tapas is about successful completion of the commitment, because it’s that that will build willpower.
(If you only want to feel that you’re going to do some things that will be good for you, you probably just want a resolution, or - less powerful - an intention, or - weakest of the bunch - a wish.)
It can in fact be good to do a tapas that brings you no other secondary benefit, so that you’re 100% focused on success for the sake of success.
So why does tapas work? Well, it’s easy to imagine a goal, but not so easy to take the steps towards that goal. And the biggest reason why we don’t take the steps is because some of those steps are unpleasant – they’re things we won’t actually enjoy doing. In the modern developed easy West, we complain a lot, but we don’t really have to do things we don’t want to very often, so we don’t see this as either “normal” or “OK”.
So we rebel!
“Why should I have to do this?” we often cry, typically filled with deep self-pity and a bloated sense of entitlement.
Well, if the answer is, “because it’s an essential step on the way to our goal”, our choice is simple: either we learn to do the things we don’t want to, or we abandon our goal (and continue to live our current, second-best, life).
Another way to describe the ability to do the things we don’t want to is … willpower.
This year I decided I was going to do a lot of tapas!
In January and February I started light, with 3-4 tapas of not eating specific types of food.
In the final week of February I added in a “positive” tapas: to do 48 different yoga postures within a week. I actually stayed up till midnight on day 7 to complete the last 14(!) that I’d left to the final day – proof that I really had chosen a tapas that included things that I didn’t want to do :-)
But with tapas, a commitment is a commitment, so I did them.
My March tapas list is a lot longer, and includes, with a few clearly defined exceptions, a computer ban apart from 12-6 on weekdays. Is it hard? Yes and no. It’s certainly been inconvenient! But I’ve enjoyed the liberation from an addictive habit; “can’t go on the computer” means “so I don’t need to”.
Suddenly there’s plenty of time for all those yoga postures!
So who wants to take on a tapas or two?
Tapas (in the yoga tradition) is a willpower-building exercise.
Both are amazing, but this article is about the second, because so many people claim that they would like to have more willpower. Well, most people actually say “I don’t have will-power” as an excuse for their failure to live a better life, but for the rest of you, tapas can be your new best friend!
The basic components of a tapas are
- a commitment with yourself to do something, or not to do something
- clear specific rules to define “success” and “failure” to keep that commitment (including a full list of exceptions!)
- a specific time frame; a week or a month usually work best, at least initially
You can of course choose to take on a commitment that is “good for you” (visit the gym 3 times a week; give up chocolate for a month) but it’s essential to remember that what you choose as your tapas is secondary. Tapas is about successful completion of the commitment, because it’s that that will build willpower.
(If you only want to feel that you’re going to do some things that will be good for you, you probably just want a resolution, or - less powerful - an intention, or - weakest of the bunch - a wish.)
It can in fact be good to do a tapas that brings you no other secondary benefit, so that you’re 100% focused on success for the sake of success.
So why does tapas work? Well, it’s easy to imagine a goal, but not so easy to take the steps towards that goal. And the biggest reason why we don’t take the steps is because some of those steps are unpleasant – they’re things we won’t actually enjoy doing. In the modern developed easy West, we complain a lot, but we don’t really have to do things we don’t want to very often, so we don’t see this as either “normal” or “OK”.
So we rebel!
“Why should I have to do this?” we often cry, typically filled with deep self-pity and a bloated sense of entitlement.
Well, if the answer is, “because it’s an essential step on the way to our goal”, our choice is simple: either we learn to do the things we don’t want to, or we abandon our goal (and continue to live our current, second-best, life).
Another way to describe the ability to do the things we don’t want to is … willpower.
This year I decided I was going to do a lot of tapas!
In January and February I started light, with 3-4 tapas of not eating specific types of food.
In the final week of February I added in a “positive” tapas: to do 48 different yoga postures within a week. I actually stayed up till midnight on day 7 to complete the last 14(!) that I’d left to the final day – proof that I really had chosen a tapas that included things that I didn’t want to do :-)
But with tapas, a commitment is a commitment, so I did them.
My March tapas list is a lot longer, and includes, with a few clearly defined exceptions, a computer ban apart from 12-6 on weekdays. Is it hard? Yes and no. It’s certainly been inconvenient! But I’ve enjoyed the liberation from an addictive habit; “can’t go on the computer” means “so I don’t need to”.
Suddenly there’s plenty of time for all those yoga postures!
So who wants to take on a tapas or two?