"I actually mean it this time"
- This phrase often indicates a top-down attempt to control one's own behavior without regard for whatever other systems are causing that behavior to already be what it is.
- As discussed in Behavior: The Control of Perception, such an approach, while very common, is intrinsically self-undermining.
- I discuss this a section of my 2017 blog post
- the section is called "What does it mean to say “I mean it”?"