What you think about willpower is... right. But only for you.

Have you ever set yourself some ambitious plan for the evening after work and then realized you are too tired to execute it and lay down for a tv series instead?

How about setting a diet and then breaking it in one evening with unhealthy snacks?

The common reason to explain this phenomenon is that we deplete our ego throughout the day—meaning that we have less willpower and self-regulation in the evening than in the morning.

But there is growing evidence that believing in the sentence above, makes it real. That this ego depletion effect may only be in our head!

Whatever you're thinking about your willpower - you are right.

This line of thought is not necessarily new, with some first impactful research published by Veronika Job, Carol S. Dweck, and Gregory M. Walton 13 years ago.

Multiple follow-up studies underlined that the more we believe our willpower is unlimited, the higher chances for us to better perform after a rough day. This includes resisting a snack in the evening, pursuing your dream about writing a book, or working hard the next day after a challenging deadline was accomplished. While it did not entirely disprove the willpower capacity research, it underlined that there is more to our willpower and a lot about it remains in our mindset.

Start thinking differently

What I like about research in this field is that it is not leaving us without answers on what exactly to do in order to take control of your willpower. Here are some activities you can undertake:

1. Think about the time when you were working past what you would think is your capacity. Collect such memories and come back to them regularly to embrace non-limited willpower mindset.
2. Challenge yourself. Set some realistic, but demanding goals for yourself to start reclaiming your evenings. How about an evening run, or workout? Maybe writing for 25 minutes would be a good start to prove yourself that sometimes self-talk is limiting you more than tiredness?
3. Celebrate challenging days. What we tend to do after a rough time is to say to ourselves - you survived, now you deserve a reward (which frequently is something unhealthy - a snack or couch time;)). Instead, celebrate and praise yourself for working hard. Own the fact you worked (which is internal) rather than survived (which is external). This ownership of effort and results should also motivate you to take even more effort to keep your routines and important goals on the table.

Prove yourself that you are capable of controlling your willpower, so you will start believing it. It gets easier and easier, one habit at a time. I already experienced it on my case :)

If you would like to learn more

This insight comes from my research for the book on personal agency I'm currently writing with Natalia Cie?lak . It should be published in Polish this autumn and then translated to English for early 2024 release. Stay in touch for more insights and update on once the book is ready. :)

Sources:

Job, V., Dweck, C. S., & Walton, G. M. (2010). Ego depletion—Is it all in your head? Implicit theories about willpower affect self-regulation.?Psychological science,?21(11), 1686-1693.

Molden, D. C., Hui, C. M., & Scholer, A. A. (2016). Understanding self-regulation failure: A motivated effort-allocation account. In?Self-regulation and ego control?(pp. 425-459). Academic Press.

Sieber, V., Flückiger, L., Mata, J., Bernecker, K., & Job, V. (2019). Autonomous goal striving promotes a nonlimited theory about willpower.?Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,?45(8), 1295-1307.