{"id":27567,"date":"2014-09-17T21:58:47","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T05:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=27567"},"modified":"2014-09-21T20:43:43","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T04:43:43","slug":"4-science-backed-ways-to-improve-willpower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/4-science-backed-ways-to-improve-willpower\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Science-Backed Ways To Have More Willpower"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

<\/p>\n

Self-control researcher Roy Baumeister led a groundbreaking study in 1996.<\/p>\n

People were led into a room which\u00a0smelled of just-baked chocolate chip\u00a0cookies. Then, cookies and chocolates were brought out for them to see. And finally, some\u00a0participants\u00a0were given two cookies to eat, but not all of them. One group of people was given raw radishes to eat instead! Poor souls.<\/p>\n

On a subsequent impossible puzzle designed to test a person’s persistence, those who ate radishes\u00a0were found to last less than half as long and took just over half the number of attempts as those who ate the cookies. (source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Willpower is an important part of changing yourself for the better\u2014it’s what helps you drag yourself out of bed at 6 AM for a morning workout; it also helps you resist chocolate chip cookies. But using willpower comes at a cost that was seen in this study\u2014it’s not unlimited.<\/p>\n

Since our willpower can be low\u00a0at times\u00a0when\u00a0we most need it, here are four scientifically-backed ways to increase your willpower.<\/p>\n

1. Eat (Short-Term Boost)<\/h3>\n

The simplest way to gain willpower is to eat something. Willpower energy is influenced\u00a0by\u00a0how much energy your brain has, and the brain’s energy source is glucose. When you eat something, the body converts it\u00a0into glucose energy for your brain and body to use. Table sugar\u00a0and\u00a0other fast-digesting carbohydrates are turned into glucose very quickly.<\/p>\n

Baumeister has found in his studies that glucose restoration can be the difference between someone quitting early or persisting. In one such\u00a0study, his team\u00a0found that people’s willpower was restored quickly after drinking lemonade. (source<\/a>) It’s also common sense and experience that when we feel tired (from low blood sugar) that we’re more susceptible to give in to bad habits and less likely to be productive\u00a0(because of\u00a0low willpower energy).<\/p>\n

So unless you need willpower to resist food, you can consider eating food to restore it.<\/p>\n

2. Reward Yourself (Short-Term Boost)<\/h3>\n

Baumeister’s work gave us the idea\u00a0that glucose was a key way to refill willpower. But some other scientists wondered if the\u00a0reward<\/em>\u00a0from food was a factor, either instead of or in addition to the glucose increase. They wondered this because when you consume sugar, it activates the reward area of your brain.<\/p>\n

To test this, they had two groups swish a liquid in their mouths and spit it out. One group swished with\u00a0artificially-sweetened liquid\u00a0and the other with sugar-sweetened liquid. This set-up was brilliant because artificial sweeteners do not trigger\u00a0the reward center of the brain (because they’re not food\u2014the brain knows what’s up). And because they didn’t swallow the liquid, glucose-restoration was not a factor. In this way, they isolated the impact of the reward from\u00a0consuming sugar. (source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

They found that the reward from swishing sugar did have a willpower-restoring effect, and that swishing with artificial sweetener had no effect.<\/p>\n

I believe that glucose and rewards are both\u00a0factors when it comes to restoring willpower. So that means when you are trying to resist fudge, maybe you should seek an alternative reward that doesn’t involve food. This should help in two ways: it will distract you from the fudge and restore some of your willpower energy to resist it.<\/p>\n

3. Practice (Long-Term Increase)<\/h3>\n

More than one study has found that one gains willpower by using willpower. But it needs to be intentional. I’m not sure that using willpower randomly does anything useful, or we’d all be willpower machines by now. It’s the same reason why using muscles randomly throughout life doesn’t make people extremely strong\u2014it requires intentional training.<\/p>\n

In one study,\u00a0students were tasked to focus on improving their posture for 2 weeks, and their self-control had improved versus those who did not. Importantly, their improved willpower was general. Willpower improvements were\u00a0seen in areas unrelated to their\u00a0posture. (source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The common metaphor for willpower is that it’s a muscle, and like muscles, it is strengthened by using it and weakened by inactivity.<\/p>\n

4. Trick Your Brain Into Practicing Even When Tired (Short-Term & Permanent Increase)<\/h3>\n

The last and my favorite way to have more willpower is to trick your subconscious brain. The reason we need willpower in the first place is because our conscious mind and subconscious mind have different desires. The subconscious is wired to want rewards and pleasurable experiences without regard to values and long-term results. Our conscious mind is what thinks about consequences of today’s behaviors 20 years down the road. It can consider the appeal of now and the consequences of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

We need to use willpower when our conscious mind makes an “executive decision” and overrules our\u00a0habitual preference. For example, saying no to a doughnut because it’s unhealthy or not a part of the diet overrides the innate desire for the sugary reward. Another example is forcing yourself to exercise despite not feeling like it. In each case, the subconscious wants the easy way, but we know what’s best for us.<\/p>\n

This dynamic is problematic only because willpower is limited. Once we’re fatigued\u2014as the aforementioned studies show\u2014we lose willpower and are likely to fall back into bad habits or fail to keep up with our plans.<\/p>\n

The way to trick your brain is to lead a breadcrumb trail of steps to your goal. If you want to work out for 30 minutes, but your subconscious wants to be lazy, you can aim to put your workout clothes on. This isn’t a dumb as it sounds\u2014it’s the first step! After that, you can aim to set up your mat or do a single push-up. Continue on in this fashion for essentially unlimited willpower. The reason it works so well is that the subconscious has trouble resisting such a reasonable favor. “Oh, only one push-up? Sure, we can do that.”<\/p>\n

When a step is too easy to say “no” to, you’ll do it. I’ve created a strategy based on this concept called “Mini Habits<\/a>.” I started doing one push-up a day in late 2012. Today, I do full workouts on most days. This strategy worked because the small goal\u00a0exercised my willpower every day (it still requires a bit of willpower to do one push-up, especially if you have weak willpower as I did). And over time, exercise became habitual.<\/p>\n

Now I have stronger self-control and my life has improved in several ways as a result. These are direct results from\u00a0my mini habits (and drastic improvements from before):<\/p>\n