What is Willpower

Willpower is a curious thing we talk about often but don't completely understand. In his book, Brain and Personality, William Thompson described willpower this way:

"That majestic endowment constitutes the high privilege granted to each man apparently to test how much the man will make of himself."

From my studies, I have come to the conclusion that willpower comes from a limited but reservoir of energy which allows us to manage our thoughts, emotions, impulses, and actions. The more we use managing one of these things, the less supply we have to manage the others. Although I believe this reservoir of energy is limited, it refills over time. Each day, we are allotted a certain quantity of willpower.

Let me explain with a story.

Story Time

Imagine for a moment you wake up. The first thing you think is, "I'm going to eat healthy all day."

The sunlight is pouring through your window. You get out of bed, stretch, and do a few exercises to get going for the day. You say hello to your family and then you eat a healthy breakfast.

All is perfect.

You drive to work. You walk in and greet your coworkers cheerfully. As you sit down in your desk, your boss shows up and begins to yell at you for something you didn't do. It was someone else.

You are faced with a choice. Yell back at him or just listen and try to calmly explain what is happening. Whichever choice you make, you feel a bit of stress as you are faced with a difficult situation. From this moment on, the day steadily gets worse and worse. Clients call to complain, co-workers stop by your desk to moan, and a friend calls and asks if you can loan him $50. Each time you are faced with a choice, you use up a bit of your willpower. Another friend drops by your desk and asks if you want a donut. Choices are piling up and every time you choose, you use a bit of your willpower.

At lunch, a friend asks if you want to go out to the hamburger joint. You exercise more self control and say no. Then the afternoon is filled with more difficult choices and offers of treats and snacks. Over and over you say no.

You drive home from work. Your family has gone over to the in-laws. What should you have for dinner? By now, you are so tired from all the choices, you finally break down and just grab a snack out of the cupboard. One snack becomes two, then three, then your healthy eating plan breaks down into a full gorge fest.

What happened?

Each time you were faced with an unexpected choice throughout the day, your prefrontal cortex had to kick into gear and make a decision. This expended a bit of the total willpower energy you had. As you expended more and more of this energy, you slowly became less and less capable of making "good" decisions. Your choices took more time, felt more difficult, and eventually you ran out of willpower. At this moment, your mind started kicking every decision back to the basal ganglia--or the habit center. You began to run on autopilot.

Not sure how this works? Check out my earlier post about The Creation of Habits.

So what can we do to control the narrative of our life if every time we run low on willpower, or energy for our prefrontal cortex, we fall back into our habits--both good and bad?

Write Your Own Story

To manage the story of your life, you must learn to manage your habits. Here are three steps you can take to start the process.

1. One at a Time
2. Break Time
3. Build A Bigger Reservoir

What do I mean by these three things?

First, work on just one habit at a time. Decide what you would most like to change in your life. Then figure out what habit would make the biggest difference towards that positive change. This is the habit you are going to focus on until it becomes so ingrained in your basal ganglia that it is always the easiest choice for you to make.

Second, whenever you feel sluggish or are having a tough time choosing what you really want to do, take a break. Go for a short walk. Meditate for one minute. Take a five minute nap. Do anything to get you out of the situation you are in and give your mind a break. This will allow your reservoir of willpower to refill a bit and give you the ability to make good choices.

Third, practice. Deliberate practice making good choices will build your reservoir of willpower over time.

Follow me, @bigpanda, for more life hints and tips.

**Images used are labeled for free reuse from Pixabay or from Wikipedia Commons

**Many of the ideas are taken from Master Your Habits: 5 Simple Steps to the Life You Want (Personal Success Library Book 1)