The truth about willpower

Weekly Technique: The truth about willpower

Picture this: there are Friday pizza night leftovers you want to avoid. Sure, you could use willpower to resist it but after a while, that’s going to get tough (and exhausting). Why? Studies show that over time our willpower can become depleted, making healthier decisions more challenging.

1. Willpower is the conscious effort it takes to do something that’s different than what we usually prefer doing.

2. When it comes to making healthy choices, willpower alone is unreliable. It’s impacted by the number of decisions we’ve already made, and how distracted, tired, or hungry we are.

3. Strategies that reduce our reliance on willpower to make healthy decisions (see below!) make it easier to stay on track.

Try one or two strategies from the list below to make healthier choices easier, so you don’t have to rely solely on willpower.

• Create guidelines. Deciding in advance how you’ll act in specific situations means you won’t need to spend energy considering other options. Plan to eat a fruit or veggie with every meal, or take a route home that doesn’t pass the bakery. Make sure it’s truly doable!

• Modify your environment. Sights, sounds, and smells can impact your actions, so set up your space to minimise decision making. If leaving biscuits in a tin on your counter has you constantly debating whether to eat them, move them to a harder-to-reach cupboard.

• Make an active choice. Create situations where the healthier choice requires less effort. Want to read before bed instead of getting wrapped up in TV? Put the TV remote on a high shelf across the room where you’ll need to actively decide to get up and grab it.

• Use temptation bundling. Couple your “want-to-do” and “must-do” activities together. Listening to one of your favourite podcasts (something you love) on an evening walk (something you “must” do) reduces how much willpower you’ll need to use.