Adam’s Peace

I came across an article on boosting willpower recently which cites some interesting scientific findings.

It seems that our willpower, that intangible factor of whether we’ll follow through on a decision or not, behaves more like a muscle than most people would expect.

Unfortunately, I could not read the study itself, because I would need to either pay $29 for that one journal article, or I would need to subscribe to the entire journal. I was able to piece together many of the findings by reading various other articles, however.

The Experiment and Findings

The basic experiment goes something like this: Gather two groups of individuals. Give the first group a task that requires self control, and give the second group a neutral task. Then, give both groups another task which requires self control.

If willpower were an emotional state, then we would expect the group that had been ‘primed’ by already showing self control to perform better on the second task. An analogy would be comparing the moods of people during a comedy show, and having half of the audience come in directly from another comedy show… The expected result is that the group that is already happy would continue to be happy throughout, or even become more happy, while the group that simply walked in from the street would have to work up to being happy.

In these experiments with self control, though, we see the opposite happening. The group which already showed restraint and discipline did worse on the second activity than the group which was free to do as they wished before hand.

The analogy behind this behavior would be asking two groups to run up several flights of stairs, except that one group would first have to do several sets of push-ups. The group which did the extra work before hand would have a lower blood sugar level, so would perform worse on their second task, if everything else were equal.

Now, keep in mind that this only shows one out of many different factors behind our willpower. This study isn’t creating a new model for what motivates us, it is simply adding more insight to an already huge model.

Other Findings

The study also found other factors. Those who have developed their willpower over time were less likely to get burned out and will be able to have more intense bursts of self-control. This is similar to a muscle developed over time becoming stronger and gaining more endurance.

Blood glucose levels play a seemingly direct role in revitalizing willpower. One experiment gave different groups a drink containing either real sugar or a sugar substitute, and those who had the real sugar performed better.

Mood plays a role as well. Those who are generally happier tended to perform better than those who were unhappy. The conclusion drawn from this, however, is still wildly debatable, as it only shows a correlation and not a cause. Perhaps mood directly reinforces willpower, or the factors that increase mood also increase willpower.

How to Apply This

Well, don’t give up your current self-motivating routine. Remember, this is just further insight into willpower, and is not a replacement of current knowledge.

With that being said, though, it seems that the best way to apply these findings is by treating our willpower the same way that we treat our muscles. That is, if we want more intense bursts of self discipline, we should perform a sort of ‘weight training’ routine. If we want to resist burnout, then we could apply something similar to a cardio routine.

As with any exercise routine, proper stretching is vital, and for those whose health prohibits the main routine, the stretching itself can be used as conditioning so that we can eventually start a main routine.

When applied to willpower, the best “stretching” would be a morning routine. For me, this routine would be, first, wake up at the same time each day, then eat breakfast, which improves the blood sugar levels, allowing me to get direct energy to feed my willpower “muscle.” During breakfast, I would evaluate my goals and plans, and set up a very-short-term plan that would extend until my next meal. After breakfast, I would clean the litterbox (first activity to get my muscles warmed up), and get completely ready for the day.

Once I have done this section of my morning routine, since I’m currently doing a 30 day trial to wake up early and work on TimeAgent, I would move straight to programming until it is either time to leave for work, or on the weekends, I would work until the sun comes up.

At this point, my main day would begin, and I would work on the various tasks in front of me until lunch, when I re-energize, “stretch” again, and plan my day until dinner. After dinner, my cool-down exercises would be straightening up the house, followed by doing whatever I want to do at the time.

Also, just as with exercise, it is important to work up to your limits gradually. Also, know which limits can not be improved. Just as a person can cause damage to their muscles from attempting to lift weights when they’re not ready, it is also possible to hurt the willpower “muscle” by attempting feats of discipline that are beyond a certain level. Personally, if I were immediately thrown into a CEO position of a large company, I would drive that company into the ground, and the fear of failure would likely keep me from ever trying again. Each time I fail to quit smoking, it gets hard for me to quit the next time… I’m damaging my willpower by lifting weights that are too large. That doesn’t mean that I can never lift those proverbial weights… It means that I have to improve my self-discipline by being successful in other areas first.

The bottom line: Train your self-discipline like you would train for a marathon: Start by jogging around the block.

As far as knowing which limits can’t be improved… I’m injured from running too much. If I simply started running again, I would quickly aggravate my injury and end up in worse shape… As I said in Wednesday’s post about Financial Peace, if I paid myself first and pay the people I owe money to last, I would end up running away from the problem as the stress builds, again making the situation worse. Instead, I work around these two problems. I work around my physical injury by riding an exercise bike, and I work around my avoidance issues by paying myself and the people I owe at the same time.

Perhaps, in time, my hip will heal enough that I can run regularly again… and perhaps by increasing my willpower in other areas, I can be more resistant to the urge to run away from my debts. Ideally, I can work on my avoidance issues directly, so that I won’t have to worry about it later. Right now, though, they are limits that I simply can’t push against without making the situations worse.

Link Love

I’d like to thank Scott H. Young, writing on his eponymous site, for bringing attention to the study. His article, Sprinting Theory: How to Have Self-Discipline on Steroids, is a great example of a clear writing style combined with a definite goal of improving oneself. Together with his various tips on how to manage specific aspects of your life, his site is certainly one worth paying attention to, from an information junkie point of view.

Week-End 30 Day Trial Report

For those interested, here’s how I’ve done so far.

This weekend, I slept in until 7am on Saturday and Sunday, and did not program. In fact, I did much of nothing the entire weekend, and it felt good. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t the most productive use of my time, but I was certainly more alert on Monday.

Mon through Wed: I woke up at 4:30 instead of my promised time of 4:00. I did less work in the mornings as well, and was less alert during the days, although with my no-worries weekend, I was far more motivated after lunch on Monday.

Thursday and Friday: I woke up at 4:00. Thursday, instead of programming first thing in the morning, I did research for this post and wrote most of its content. Today, I finished off this post’s content, cleaned the litter box,

The rent is paid, and we bought enough groceries to last us through this next week, barely. This leaves us with around $60 in our main account. This needs to last for one week from today, until I get paid again… Fortunately, the only expenses we expect are fuel, maybe groceries, and cigarettes, although with fuel prices taking at least $30 out of our account each week, we are admittedly cutting it closer than I would like.

This being the third day of our budget awakening, we of course have no savings, no stocks, no IRA… nothing. We have about $10 scattered in our two savings accounts and the less-used checking account.

Today is also our Big Budget day of the month… I don’t expect to have anything new to report, though, as we have to wait until next month to have a fully accurate list of our spending habits. Tomorrow, I’ll be taking $40 out of the ATM for fuel for the coming week, and will be using the rest on cigarettes, although we will be using our debit card, as I don’t want to completely empty out the bank account too early.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 9:50 am and is filed under Responsibility, Habit, Time Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.