Akrasia: Knowing It's Right but Not Doing It

“The logic is full proof… I just can’t be bothered. I have to change my whole diet and be difficult at all social events from now on. And there’s not even a medal!”

Akrasia: It’s a Greek word meaning ‘The inability to act as one thinks right’. Basically, it’s when you know what the right thing to do is, but you lack the willpower to actually do it because the wrong thing is easier, cheaper, or more comfortable.

This is me! I do it all the time. Hard things are hard and you’ll catch me watching youtube videos more often than actually doing the hard things I know I should be doing.

Creature of Habit

We are all creatures of habit in one way or another. It’s not easy to change ingrained behaviours, especially when they have been reinforced over a lifetime.

There are countless behaviours that we all do which we have never questioned. We learn these automatic behaviours from our parents, our friends, our media, and our culture that surrounds us.

Most of the time even if we question these behaviours, they end up being the right things to do anyway. But sometimes, the habits we’ve formed are at odds with our values, and that’s when Akrasia kicks in.

When people realise veganism is morally correct, they often look at the everything that needs to change:

• learning new recipes
• checking labels
• dealing with awkward family dinners
• explaining your choices to others

This is effort. This is not easy… at first.

Progress not perfection

I didn’t change overnight and I keep making plenty of mistakes as well. For me I just focused on making small, manageable changes, learn from my mistakes, and forgive myself when I slipped up.

Travelling was and is still very difficult. Initially I thought what is the point of being vegan if I can’t stick to it in another country. It’s okay though. I just try my best. I like travelling but also find it overstimulating and exhausting at the best of times. So I decided that it’s okay just doing my best. Looking for the obvious vegan options and compromising to vegetarian options when necessary.

I don’t need to be perfectly disciplined. I just need to start making slightly better choices until those choices become my new baseline.