You've probably read the grim statistics about how the vast majority of New Year's resolutions are doomed to failure. According to a recent
Wall Street Journal article, the failure rate is about 88%. However, the article goes on to explore some research on willpower. And guess what? Turns out there are some handy tricks to it you can learn!
Many of these tips derive from research that suggests that willpower is not an unlimited resource. It's controlled by a part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex), that also has
other things it has to take care of. Like keeping you focused, handling short-term memory, and solving abstract problems. (Or, in my case: day-dreaming, forgetting my own phone number, and deciding to hand over the remote control to my spouse because I can no longer figure out how to operate a telelvision set.)
But this notion of willpower as a brain function is kinda weird, isn't it? We think of having lots of willpower as a sign of being a "good" or "moral" person. But, to borrow an analogy from the article, willpower is less like a virtue and more like a muscle in the brain. A muscle that can be easily overwhelmed if it's trying to take on too much at once--sort of like your pectoral muscles would be if you tried to bench-press a school bus.
The implications? You are not a "good" person or a "bad" person. You are just skilled or unskilled at using this brain resource to accomplish your goals! (Or, well, if your lack of willpower leads you to throw people out of windows when you're frustrated, rather than just eating too many Oreos, then perhaps you
are a bad person. Cut that out.)
Anyway, want to get more skilled at this willpower thing? I thought I'd steal some tips from the WSJ, and toss in a few more I've learned from other helpful bloggers. Let's see if we can get those flagging New Year's Resolutions back on track, shall we?
1. Gonna be busy or preoccupied? Prepare ahead to prevent slips!If you're in the middle of a challenging task (like say some guy in lab coat forces you to memorize a seven digit number), research suggests you will suck at exercising will power when offered a tempting slice of chocolate cake. With a two digit number? You're much more likely to pick fruit salad.
It helps to know that if you're in the middle of doing taxes, or you're extra-burdened at work, it's not gonna be a great time to wander into the kitchen or stop by the vending machine with the vague idea of getting something to eat. Have healthy stuff near your desk, wait until you can give your brain a break before putting yourself in temptation's path.
Similarly, if you already struggle with motivating yourself to go work out, don't make the go/no go decision in the midst of a hectic morning routine or while responding to a flurry of emails. Get your stuff ready ahead of time, and put yourself on autopilot. You can always bail early if your workout sucks, but don't make it easier to play hooky by asking yourself, "God, do I really have to go to the gym today?" in the midst of overwhelming chaos.
2. Don't Take on Too Many Resolutions at Once.The willpower researchers say that you're simply going to get overwhelmed if you're trying to exert willpower on too many fronts. Take one or two of your goals and really focus on them. Once you form the habit and these tentative resolutions become fixed routines,
then you can start taking on more goals.
3. Don't starve yourselfWhether your resolution has to do with weight loss or not, you're going to have an extra hard time keeping to your goals if you let yourself get too hungry. Researchers found a glass of lemonade with sugar could boost self-control measures, while a glass made with splenda couldn't.
Even more interesting, research subjects performing self-control tasks ended up with significantly lower glucose levels than those who didn't have to exert self-control. What does that mean?
Using willpower actually takes real energy!
4. Find Ways to Distract Yourself:Studies have shown that folks who are better at resisting a temptation are often just better at getting their minds off of it. Some implications: Don't let yourself sit and ruminate about how much you hate going for a run or how much you'd really love a hot fudge sundae. Walk away from trouble spots like bakery counters or vending machines! Have a favorite fantasy or visualization you can turn to for distraction when tempted to take the low road, whether it's winning the lottery or spending a hot night with Hugh Jackman.
5. Strengthen your willpower by exercising it.Instead of taking on too many goals at once, use your success in one arena to build your willpower in others. According to research, people who exerted willpower in one task (working on their posture) were later better able to exert more self-control in an unrelated task than people who hadn't had their willpower "strengthened" by performing the posture exercises.
To me, this idea of "strengthening the willpower muscle" comes in handy in another way: when I'm wavering between a good choice and and evil one (apple for a snack, or brownie?) the idea that choosing the apple now may strengthen my willpower and help me get my butt to the gym next month? Bonus!
6. Visualize your goals vividly and concretely and frequently.In that moment of making a decision between, say, driving the car to the post office or walking there; or choosing between the grilled chicken salad and the burger; or deciding whether to return to your novel-in-progress or watch a Seinfeld re-run, there's often a critical period where you could go either way. The problem? Often your long-term goals are vague and abstract ("eat healthy!") and are no match for the lovely and imminent specifics of the short term temptation.
The more you can conjure up an engaging, distracting vision of yourself achieving your goal, and the more you can focus on that than the temporary sacrifice you're making, the more chance you have of staying on track.
So fantasize! Picture yourself running that marathon, accepting that Booker Prize, splashing around in that bikini, or whatever this is all about for you. Really feel how cool it will be when you're further along and enjoying the benefits of your short-term sacrifices.
For those trying to lose weight? You may want to check out the stories and the "before" and "after" pictures of some health and weight loss bloggers you can relate to. Perhaps Pubsgal at
Opposite Life, or Quix at
Adjusted Reality.
Reading about the incremental progress and victories of other folks can be inspiring! For example,
chaobell is running more and more miles as well as conquering her fear of being seen running in public at the track. Quote: "Funny how running a race with four thousand other people also running, not to mention the spectators, will make you not quite care so much that a sauna suit grandma with one-pound hand weights is approaching you from the opposite direction."
In addition, you may want to take Rita's advice over at
Surrender Dorothy and
write down your cherished long term goals. Do it every day if you can, and keep those goals close to your heart and in the forefront of your mind.
7. Find ways to achieve your goals that are fun, so you don't have to use much willpower.This sounds obvious, but how many of us don't invest the time or energy in thinking creatively about how to meet our goals? People who hate exercise bikes get on them every day, when they might enjoy a kickball game so much more. Dieters eat the same grim meals over and over, too settled or intimidated to experiment playing around with new recipes or ingredients.
As our pal
Mizfit suggests: use "willingness" and you don't need willpower!
For example, Hanlie at
FertileHealthy discovered she really didn't like walking all that much, but she loves pilates and aqua-aerobics, two things I would last 20 seconds at.
Is there anything you might be slogging through that you could actually be having some fun doing? Might be worth investing the time to find out.
8. Try some "reverse" impulsivity!Lyn at
Escape from Obesity had a great post about how you can make either a really good or really bad decision in a split-second. Usually we associate taking quick, impulsive actions with bad choices, like eating a second slice of chocolate cake or setting your cheating boyfriend's car on fire. However, you can make good decisions impulsively too!
As Lyn explains: "When the truffles I got as a gift for Christmas were bugging me, I wanted to eat them. But as I was taking one out of the box, I had a split second of clarity and grabbed a huge handful and ran to the kitchen sink, turned on the hot water and held the truffles under the faucet. It felt ridiculous... chocolate oozing all over my hands, making a mess, and then putting dish soap on the remains to get them down the drain... but it feels a lot less ridiculous to do that than to shove them in my face and watch my body grow new fat rolls."
So is exerting willpower hard or easy for you? Got any handy willpower tricks?[Note: this post also appears over at Blogher's 10x club. And you can check out the forum there for daily challenges and rewards]
