Sacrifices Holograms

[Duty]

My term. I first heard of the phenomenon in "Easy Way" by Allen Carr, a (successful, in my case) smoking cessation technique/guide. He said in the book that the constant bombarding of images and adverts telling people how dreadful smoking is for health do nothing to help quitters really, because they create a sense of sacrifice in the quitters mind. I think that in fact it applies to many many things in life however, and is far from limited to smoking. In a nutshell, it works like this:

Sacrifices Holograms – where one has a very bad habit, but "unconsciously" deduces there MUST be a powerful reason to continue with that habit due to the fact one DOES continue. The worse the habit, the more powerful the holographic image in the mind of an enormously powerful reason to continue. The truth? There is no large sacrifice to be made: 99.9% of the monstrosity is just a mental hologram born of the enormity of the reasons to do the right thing, when doing wrong.

Struggling to stick to a diet but don't know why? Sacrifices Holograms.
Struggling to write that awesome novel you've been meaning to for years but don't know why? Sacrifices Holograms.
Struggling to cut down on a gambling problem? Sacrifices Holograms.

And on and on and on. Thunks atheist forums?

[Sal]

Sort of like the reverse of sunk cost fallacy.

[Duty]

Ah yes Sal, excellent analogy. Instead of "throwing good money after bad," sacrifices holograms mean the longer one goes without doing the right thing, the less likely one is to start doing the right thing, as the spectral holographic form grows in strength with every failed effort. Perhaps once this is known, and a torch beam shone on the nasty SH Boggart, it can be banished, and all that's needed then is to take the plunge!

[Duty]

So I've shone a torch on my personal "can't get on with writing my novel" sacrifices hologram and it turns out it's grown to be so monstrous and powerful that, basically, I'm severely concerned that writing my novel will, in fact, kill me. That's right, according to my tiny little "balancing" mind, writing my book is SUCH a great idea and I haven't been doing it properly for SO long that I must need to sacrifice my very life to sit down and write the thing, such is the magnitude of the travesty in not doing so. There is of course no specified mechanism as to how that might occur (it's just a hologram, afterall) but, nevertheless, it is clear as day to me now. Clear as a sidewinder missile locked on for the kill.

Utter madness