[vidarh]

You don't need to become Amish to learn from this approach though.

All you need to do to benefit from it without the downsides is to use the opportunity when you decide on a goal, whatever it is, to think through which things makes it hard to stick to, and find ways of creating barriers that makes it harder to deviate from your desired behavior than sticking to it.

E.g. there's the old trick to managing your credit card debts of freezing it in a block of ice in the freezer - lets you keep the card for emergencies, but forces you to wait and gives you plenty of opportunities to change your opinion before you actually use it.

Or smaller things, like being aware and picking routes of your commute that avoids temptations when you're on a diet.

Just acknowledging that relying on willpower alone is error prone, and plan accordingly, really.