If you want to make self-improvement and become the best version of yourself. Avoid self-destroying yourself and thinking you’re not capable of following through.

Being able to remain self-disciplined and have self-restraint. The unshakeable strength of will to follow through with one’s wishes. Having self-control can help us break bad habits, resist temptation, and be more consistent.

What is willpower?

Willpower is the ability to control your own thoughts and the way you behave. Such as being able to control the urge to eat junk foods or go to the gym even when you don’t feel like it.

Do you believe willpower is a muscle that needs to be trained and will eventually tire out sooner or later? Or do you think willpower is an emotion that will not decrease at all?

Importance of willpower

The core idea of willpower is to be able to resist short-term temptations to reach your long-term goals. Why is that important?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had the ability to control our willpower so that we could use it to stop procrastinating(my lifelong wish)? Eat more healthy foods, save and invest for retirement and achieve all sorts of grand goals that we have.

A survey was done by the American Psychological Association before New Year’s Eve. Many people believed that if they could increase willpower then they would be able to make positive changes in their lives.

The lack of willpower was the main reason why it was restricting them from achieving their goals.

Watch the video below to have a rough estimate of how strong your willpower is.

Studies

The Stanford marshmallow experiment was a study on delayed gratification in 1972 led by psychologist Walter Mischel, a professor at Stanford University.

Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman both PhDs psychologists gave questionnaires to eighth-graders and also their parents and teachers to find out how high the students’ self-control was.

Also when the students completed their questionnaires they were given the option to receive $1 immediately or wait a week to receive $2.

They found that those with better grades and better school attendance were students with higher self-control and were more likely to be admitted to a competitive high school program.

In fact, the researchers found, that self-control was more important than IQ in predicting academic success.

Further studies

The benefits of willpower also extended further from their college years. A long-term health study in Dunedin, New Zealand done by Terrie Moffitt, Ph.D., of Duke University, and his colleagues. On 1000 individuals who were tracked from birth till the age of 32.

What they found was those with high self-control in childhood grew into adults with greater physical and mental health. Fewer substance-abuse problems and criminal convictions, and better savings behavior and financial security.

Basically, the ability to delay gratification is important and can be translated in all sorts of ways in our daily lives. So does that mean those of us with low willpower are doomed?

Baby scared

Instant gratification

Nowadays with modern convenience, we can expect almost anything to be quick and easy. Ordering food, online shopping, entertainment, and even dating are easily accessible.

Although it isn’t really a bad thing that we are able to make use of such conveniences.

Yet relying on it too much will make us less patient, and develop poor habits and poor impulse control. We are so used to having our desires met so quickly, whenever there is a need to wait we get annoyed. Even when a video takes too much time to load we may even get angry.

We fail to manage stress and our stress management also decreases. Instant gratification can cause negative effects.

Higher stress levels, low willpower, bad habits, and bad health, and cause our minds to wander and have unwanted thoughts.

With delayed gratification, you will be able to increase your willpower as you value healthy habits more. You avoid temptation and create lasting positive results, which can mean stopping drinking and quitting smoking.

Can willpower be learned?

Definitely not, willpower is something that you are born with and thus its’ mystical power cannot be simply channelled, it depends on which horoscope you are and all you can do is sit around and pray for some miracle to happen…

Fortunately, psychological science has proven that this is not true. With certain strategies, you can always strengthen your willpower.

“You need to recognize when you’re making a choice that requires willpower; otherwise, the brain always defaults to what is easiest.” ― Kelly McGonigal

You know that life happens and there are times when you don’t “feel” like doing it. There is just so much to do, and on top of that, all these distractions are tempting us away from what we should really be doing. If only I had more willpower…

Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., Stanford University health psychologist, and lecturer. In her book “The Willpower Instinct” she shows and guides us on how self-control works, why it matters, and what you can do to get more of it.

Willpower book

Boost your willpower

To develop stronger willpower, we need to treat it like a muscle. The more we use willpower the greater willpower we have. Our willpower is being tested almost every day, whether it’s pushing ourselves to do some physical activity before or after work. Resisting the temptation of desserts whenever you are mentally stressed.

It’s the small changes to our habits in our lifestyle that we have that are important. To improve our willpower and maintain it. You need to develop self-awareness that your decision-making at the moment will affect you in the long term,

Here are some methods you can put in place for high willpower

Brain foods

Feeding your brain the right foods. Focus on foods that will make your brain happy and increase your energy levels so that you can work on mentally tough tasks. Better brain power=Better willpower.

Fatty Fish
Berries
Leafy green vegetables
Coffee and Tea
Nuts

Brain killer foods

Avoiding foods that are bad for your brain is just as important. Sugar is important and our brain is dependent on it but we also need to maintain our glucose levels. In order to do that we need to avoid or at the very least limit these sugary food and drinks.

Soft drinks, energy drinks, and fruit juices(even fresh ones)
Refined carbs such as white bread and pastries
Frozen pies
Chips, ice cream, and cereals
Alcohol

Avoid Multi-tasking

Technology has now become so smart that we can’t even go to the bathroom without a phone. Our phones are distracting us so much that we can’t fully focus on our tasks.

Then we resort to multi-tasking such as taking a dump while scrolling through social media. Taking us twice as long to push it out.

Multi-tasking is viewed as being more efficient with your time and we want to get more things done as soon as possible.

But, it reduces our effectiveness when completing certain tasks, especially complex ones. Doing many things together can actually increase our stress levels and confusion at times since our focus is being divided.

Your brain’s prefrontal cortex is used when you begin focusing on anything. The prefrontal cortex works best when it’s focusing on a single task.

A study was done on participants where they were asked to complete 2 tasks together. At the same time a scan of their brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The results showed that the brain’s prefrontal cortex attention was split in half. Which caused the participants to forget details and make three times more mistakes when given two simultaneous goals.

Increase willpower with sleep

Sleep deprivation is one of the main causes of stress. Also, the reason why your willpower fails when you need it most.

Many scientific studies have shown that people who get less than 6 hours of sleep feel stressed, which makes us hard to break bad habits and resist temptation.

Your brain will overreact to everyday stress and the effect of sleep deprivation is almost equal to being a little bit drunk.

Since your brain is unable to manage stress and focus, your body and well-being will also be negatively affected.

Healthy eating and regular exercise will be harder to maintain. You become all moody, and your problem-solving skills and alertness drop making you appear dumb.

Your sleep also affects your memory, try remembering what you ate 3 days ago for lunch.

Exercise

Regular exercise and being consistent with it can help you develop other good habits. Adding intense cardio training and even mindful exercise such as yoga will help build the brain and body to become more resilient. Which will increase willpower without you noticing it.

On top of that, you will do your brain a favour to fight off negativity and overcome challenges.

The key is to start small. New habits can be difficult to maintain so start with something simple as going for a short walk. Doing a couple of push-ups or even a few minutes of stretching in your free time can be useful.

Set realistic goals. Just think of any exercise that you are willing to do consistently. Having self-awareness and self-discipline is the first step toward greater willpower.

Conclusion

Remember that whenever you have a feeling of willpower depletion, it probably is because of trying to complete too many things too fast. Eating healthy and avoiding instant gratification can help you recover your willpower.