Willpower And Self-control Can Change Your Life

Working on willpower and self-control can change our lives in many ways. Following a healthy diet, reading more, exercising, or working toward some long-term goal wouldn’t be so difficult if we could control our behavior. The benefits of willpower remain in effect throughout life.

Along the same lines, Terrie Moffit, from Duke University, and a group of colleagues studied self-control in a group of 1000 individuals.

These people were followed from birth to age 32, all as part of a long-term health survey conducted in Dunedin, New Zealand. Along with his colleagues, Moffitt found that individuals with greater self-control during childhood became healthier adults, physically and mentally.

With these results, it is evident that willpower and self-control mark the steps we take along the way. Recent studies suggest that it is possible to strengthen willpower and self-control with lifelong practice.

Data on willpower and self-control

Researchers who study self-control often describe it as a muscle that tires from hard work. However, they also say that there is another aspect to the muscle analogy. Although the muscles get tired from exercise in the short term, in the long term exercise strengthens them.

By constantly applying willpower in a given area, others improve.

Australian scientists Megan Oaten and Ken Cheng, from Macquarie University in Sydney, proposed an exercise program for a group of volunteers for two months. In other words, they assigned them an activity that required willpower.

Participants who scored better on self-control tests reported that they had smoked and drank less, eaten healthier, controlled their spending, and improved their study habits.

Apparently, applying willpower in physical exercise makes it possible to generalize it and also strengthens other areas of life.

The delayed satisfaction

More than 40 years ago, Walter Mischel, a psychologist at Columbia University, explored children’s self-control with a simple but effective test. He left a tempting marshmallow in front of the study volunteers, who in this case were children.

Before leaving them alone with the candy, he announced that he would leave the room and that if they could withstand the temptation to touch the candy during his absence, he would give them another when he returned… In the end, each child would have two candies . Otherwise, they wouldn’t eat the second candy. We are talking about a classic experiment, which was replicated on many occasions by analyzing the influence of different variables.

Overall, children who were less successful at resisting marshmallow on the test were also less successful on self-control tests as adults. An individual’s sensitivity to immediate stimuli appears to persist throughout the person’s lifetime.

Willpower and glucose

Eating frequently to maintain your brain’s sugar levels can also help replenish your reserves of willpower. However, we must not let the word “sugar” fool us.

According to experts, healthy foods without refined sugar are better than sweets at keeping our sugar levels balanced.

The goals, better one at a time

Findings from the Willpower Depletion Surveys also suggest that making a list of New Year’s resolutions is not a good thing to do if we really want to get what we write on that list.

Being exhausted in one area can lead to reduced willpower in other aspects of our lives, so it makes more sense to focus on one goal at a time.

Once we have acquired a good habit, Baumeister says, using willpower to maintain the behavior is no longer necessary. Over time, healthy habits become routine and can be performed with much less effort.

avoid temptation

Avoiding temptation is an effective tactic for maintaining self-control. In Walter Mischel’s study of candy, children who focused their attention on marshmallows either gave up sooner or resisted less. Those who closed their eyes, looked the other way, or were otherwise distracted were able to resist the temptation.

The “implementation intent”

Another useful tactic for improving self-control is the technique known as “implementation intent”. For example, someone trying to control their drinking might decide before a party that “if someone offers me a drink, I will order a Coke” .

Implementation intentions improve self-control. Having a plan in place in advance can allow us to make decisions on the spot without having to apply willpower.

Motivation is the secret

Mark Muraven found that individuals whose willpower had been depleted persisted in their tasks of self-control when told that they would be paid for their efforts or that they would benefit others.

He concludes that high motivation can help overcome weakened willpower, at least to some extent.

Neuroscientific Discoveries

The researchers found that the prefrontal cortex (a region that controls executive functions such as decision-making) shows greater activity in people with greater self-control. Likewise, the ventral striatum (a region that may be related to desire and reward processes) shows increases in its activity in those people with less self-control.

The truth is, there are many unanswered questions about the nature of self-control. However, it seems that, with clear goals, self-vigilance and a little practice, we can train the willpower so that it remains strong in the face of the temptation to follow paths with less demands or impositions.