People speak about willpower like it’s a muscle that is trained. But a better way to think about it is a cup that is emptied.
When I say willpower, I’m meaning our ability to resist temptation or distraction. We can also call it self-control.
Let’s play this out in an example. You’ve decided to go on a diet! And because you’ve made this decision, you believe that your willpower and self-control will be strong enough to ward off all temptation.
So let’s test that. Imagine your kitchen bench has a constant supply of freshly-baked chocolate-chip cookies. And they smell incredible!
You need to visit the kitchen several times a day, and the smell of fresh baked cookies is everywhere in your home. This would be a fantastic exercise to develop your willpower if it were a muscle to train.
But have a think about how you handle temptation. You resist. And resist. And resist…. Until you can’t resist any more. And then you tell yourself whatever reason you need to hear to have that first bite, and then you’ve lost count of the number of cookies you’ve had.
We only have a certain amount of self-control before it’s depleted, and we do a great job at overrating our willpower.
It’s more effective to put the systems in place that remove the temptations entirely. This will preserve the energy you would otherwise have spent resisting temptation, and overtime the triggers will subside.