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As an Eagle Scout and former Army officer, one of my enduring life lessons has been "false motivation is better than no motivation."

When you're cold, wet, and tired it helps to pretend you love it. It's infectious, too.

It is actually a good feeling when you realize you're not as fragile as you thought you were. "I would have thought that I'd be miserable in this situation, but I'm actually OK" is a good thought to have.



The same mechanism is probably why studies show that forcing a smile even when you don't feel happy can lead you to slowly become happier.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/smile-it-could-ma...


This result has been cast into doubt by a recent replication attempt, which failed to find any such forced-smile effect.

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/StrackRRR_manuscrip...





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