From Luca Dellanna, *The Control Heuristic*, Ch 1.5: Because actions are interconnected — each one capable of raising or lowering the EEO of others — there is always an entry point: > "Whenever we cannot get ourselves to take an action (its EEO is too low), there is always at least a tiny step we can take (its EEO is enough) that can increase the EEO of other actions, allowing us to take larger and larger steps, until we are ready to take the action we initially wanted to take." ## The Mechanism Actions form an interconnected net. Taking action A produces an emotional reaction that affects the EEO of action B. This is why: - Starting a small part of a task sometimes makes the rest easier (momentum) - A single run makes the second run more likely - Entering the gym, even briefly, can raise the EEO for the full workout next time ## The Implication for Stuck States When facing an action whose EEO is too low to execute, the question is not "how do I force myself to do this?" but "what smaller adjacent action — mental or physical — can I take right now that has sufficient EEO and that might nudge the target action's EEO upward?" This reframes inaction from a willpower failure into a search problem: find the executable step in the chain. ## Related - [[Expected Emotional Outcome]] — the metric that governs which steps are executable - [[Two Conditions for Action]] — both prompt and EEO must be present - [[Mental Actions Are Gated]] — mental steps (visualization, planning) count as entry points too