{"id":7395,"date":"2018-04-03T08:30:21","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T12:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/?p=7395"},"modified":"2018-04-02T10:22:17","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T14:22:17","slug":"how-to-boost-your-willpower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/stress-busters\/how-to-boost-your-willpower\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Boost Your Willpower"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"page-title\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7398 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2018\/04\/self-control.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"174\" height=\"211\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2018\/04\/self-control.png 386w, http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2018\/04\/self-control-287x350.png 287w, http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2018\/04\/self-control-246x300.png 246w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 174px) 100vw, 174px\" \/>Cheating on your diet or exercise plan? Struggling with self-control or impulse choices? Science shows that willpower can get depleted! Learn how you can strengthen it and increase your ability to resist temptation.<\/h1>\n<div id=\"ratingsDiv\">\n<div id=\"gigyaRatingWidgetContainer\">\n<div id=\"commentsDiv\" class=\"gig-comments-container-progress\"><span style=\"color: #000000;font-weight: bold\">Willpower May Be a Finite Resource<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<article class=\"print-section\">Willpower is the epic battle in your prefrontal cortex between the WILL of your logic and the POWER of your emotions.You know this battle so well. Do you choose the chili cheese fries or have a side of grilled asparagus? After a hard day, do you hit the gym or have margaritas with your crew? Our lives are a constant game of \u201cthis or that\u201d that often ends up feeling like \u201cwould you rather.\u201dExerting your willpower can be exhausting. Sometimes you feel like you can\u2019t make the best choice and you just can\u2019t resist any longer. And there\u2019s a reason for that.<\/p>\n<p>Your willpower may be an exhaustible, finite resource. It may be used up over the course of a day in lots of tiny ways. This is called ego depletion.<\/p>\n<p>Research by social psychologist Roy Baumeister and others suggests that if someone initially resists a temptation like warm chocolate chip cookies, the person is then less capable of resisting another willpower challenge or making a difficult decision.<sup>1,2<\/sup><\/p>\n<p><sup><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/sup><strong>Translation:<\/strong>\u00a0Doing something tough may use up some willpower, which makes resisting temptation super hard.<\/p>\n<p>Ok, so what can you do about this depletion? Don\u2019t fret, here are some simple strategies to level up your willpower.<\/p>\n<h3>Arrange things and make decisions when your willpower is sky high.<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Clean.<\/strong>\u00a0Get rid of all the temptations. If all the junk food is gone you won\u2019t have to resist later.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Commit.<\/strong>\u00a0If you have a plan with a friend for spin class, you won\u2019t have to wonder what you\u2019re doing later.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Optimize.<\/strong>\u00a0Change your timing for tasks, like grocery shopping right after a meal when your willpower is strong. If you don\u2019t use your willpower to battle the cookie aisle in the store, you\u2019ll have reserves for resisting dessert later tonight.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Boost your willpower in the moment it is being challenged.<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Postpone.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cNot now, maybe later.\u201d Saying a simple phrase like this can reduce your impulse to listen to that devil on your shoulder.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distract.<\/strong>\u00a0Try distracting yourself to see if your impulse chills out. Giving yourself something else to focus on can calm the brewing willpower battle.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hide.<\/strong>\u00a0Remove the temptation from your view or remove yourself from the situation. In the classic \u201cmarshmallow experiment,\u201d even little kids trying to use willpower to wait for a delicious, squishy marshmallow had more luck if they simply hid it from their view. One kid sat on it to get it out of view! If a kid can do it, so can you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Learn how to strengthen your willpower.<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Meditate.<\/strong>\u00a0Yep, this one again. Even brief, 10-minute mindfulness meditations, done over time, can improve your self-control. The deal with mindfulness is you learn to bring your thoughts back to the present moment as they start to wander. And every time you do this, you\u2019re flexing your willpower muscle.<sup>3<\/sup><\/li>\n<li><strong>Sleep<\/strong>. It always come back to getting enough sleep, we know! Studies indicate that getting enough sleep matters for your willpower, too.<sup>4<\/sup>\u00a0Healthy sleep can lower psychological strain, give you better self-control, and replenish self-regulatory energy. That\u2019s all a fancy way of saying, \u201cGet to bed!\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stop swearing.<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s not a joke. Baumeister suggests that challenging yourself to change a speech pattern, like using \u201chello\u201d instead of \u201chey\u201d or dropping that expletive and replacing it with something else, can help you learn to extend your willpower.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Excuse your setback and get on with it!<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Forgiving yourself<\/strong>\u00a0for an oops moment frees up your willpower, so you can resist next time. It\u2019s ok, you\u2019re human, and you\u2019re going to make mistakes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In other words, using the first letter of each of these strategies, A-B-L-E, be able! Using your willpower doesn\u2019t have to use up\u00a0<strong>all<\/strong>\u00a0your willpower.<\/p>\n<p>Which willpower boost are you going to try next time you\u2019re in a logic vs. emotion throw-down?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/healthyforgood.heart.org\/be-well\/articles\/how-to-boost-your-willpower-to-help-make-healthy-choices-easy\" class=\"broken_link\">https:\/\/healthyforgood.heart.org\/be-well\/articles\/how-to-boost-your-willpower-to-help-make-healthy-choices-easy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cheating on your diet or exercise plan? Struggling with self-control or impulse choices? Science shows that willpower can get depleted! Learn how you can strengthen it and increase your ability to resist temptation. Willpower May Be a Finite Resource Willpower &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/stress-busters\/how-to-boost-your-willpower\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9193321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[313092,241883],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-self-image","category-stress-busters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paB9fc-1Vh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9193321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7395"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7400,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7395\/revisions\/7400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}