Where to Find Unlimited Self-Control
It’s no secret that humans are captivated by impulses and desires that don’t align with their long-term ambitions.
Why head to bed, when the “Go To Next Episode” box is waiting to be clicked?
Why avoid the cigarette, when that immediate high is one puff away?
Why get outside for a walk or a run, when the couch is noticeably more appealing?
In order to accomplish the goals we set ourselves though, we need to conquer those impulses. We must override temptations and replace them with other, more desirable behaviors.
The capacity to do so is simply classed as self-control [1].
Unfortunately, as we know all too well, this is no easy feat.
It’s why we feel we must rely on self-control to achieve our goals, why we believe we’re failing if we don’t exhibit unreserved levels of willpower, and why discipline is perceived as the number one trait required for reaching our health and fitness goals.
Fortunately, there’s a new way of thinking about self-control.
A way that doesn’t mean you must force self-control upon yourself, or “save” your willpower stores for those tougher moments—nor believe it’s something to be attained or utilized above all other goal-attainment strategies.
A way that means we can focus on other important skills and traits, so we’re not left to battle through situations counting on fragile resolve and vulnerable restraint.
Is Your Willpower a Limited Resource?
Initial self-control research hypothesized that people’s ability to display self-control was dependent on whether they’d used self-control earlier on in the day or not. This potential “using up” of self-control was formally coined as “ego depletion.”
Willpower was, ultimately, believed to be a “limited resource.”
It’s why, in the seminal study on willpower, people who forced themselves to eat radishes instead of chocolates, thus exerting more self-discipline, subsequently quit faster on unsolvable puzzles than those who didn’t have to display the same levels of self-control [2].
It was argued that reserves of self-control depreciate whenever we choose to ignore short-term desires in the interest of serving long-term goals.
Interestingly, research also showed that, just like the musculature in our body, self-control relies on glucose (one of the body’s preferred sources of fuel) as its own energy source [3]. The more “energy” we possess, the more self-control we can occupy.
It was, therefore, surmised that the more we dispense of self-control reserves, the less strength we possess to utilize them thereafter.
In other words, it looked like your willpower became depleted throughout the day the more you used it.
Hence why it was believed that when you get to the end of the day—or week—you find it much tougher to choose healthy food options, hit the gym, and align your behaviors with your long-term wellness ambitions.
It seemed simple: don’t use up your self-control if you want to use it for other important tasks later.
A New Way of Thinking About Self-Control
This popular Strength Model of Self-Control has been slowly refuted. It’s been found to lack significant answers to other critical willpower-related questions:
What about subsequent tasks that we’re highly motivated to complete? What about moments when we’re forced to use self-control? Or when deciding between two equally rewarding choices, such as watching television or going out with friends?
And what if we believe we have more willpower than we actually do?
In recent years, research has suggested that issues with self-control can be attributed to a priority shift as opposed to a resource problem [3].
Self-control is no longer about a finite resource being used up throughout the day but simply owed to attention and priorities shifting, meaning that future-focused behaviors are halted in favor of immediately-rewarding actions, instead.
It’s not that we’ve run out of self-control reserves when we can’t say no to the donuts and cookies, but because these are far more rewarding in the moment than the potential promise of a healthy body in months and years to come.
These new, priority-based models of self-control state that our willpower isn’t based upon some exceptional ability to power through adversity but that we override temptations based on:
The perceived effort of a task
The opportunity costs for making a decision
Our current wellbeing
And the overall value of that choice
Where to Find Unlimited Self-Control
If a task or choice is easy, intrinsically rewarding, and within our control, we’re far more likely to display those oft-coveted bouts of discipline. It has less to do with how much we have left over at the end of a grueling day than we initially thought.
Our self-control powers are instead governed by effort, autonomy, and motivation.
Problems with self-control primarily arise when “have-to accomplish” goals (such as consuming “healthier” food items) lose their salience in comparison with “want-to accomplish” goals (such as devouring highly-palatable, “unhealthier” foods).
It’s why one study showed that tasks of high value to certain people, such as smoking or meditating, counteracted feelings of increased effort and provided reward and appreciation for the time spent on a mirror-tracing task—meaning they still possessed sufficient self-control even after it had supposedly been depleted [4].
And, when we possess sufficient motivation to balance competing goals, we can display appropriate levels of self-control.
Only when we perform an activity out of obligation or increased effort, do we experience this perceived mental fatigue.
Therefore, problems with self-control surrounding health and fitness behaviors arise when your brain perceives your long-term goals as only partially rewarding relative to their required efforts.
It’s also why, when people are provided with an added incentive to display levels of self-control, they’re able to overcome any supposed willpower depletion. In the case of one such study, being told that their results in a problem-solving task would assist in developing new therapies for patients with Alzheimer’s disease, aided the use of willpower [5].
Similarly, if we grow disinterested in a particular responsibility, or even perceive a task as tiring or challenging, we then lose our ability to display self-control. You can’t say “no” to the cookie at work—not because you lack self-control, but because you already perceive it as mentally demanding and taxing to do so.
People don’t necessarily surrender reserves of willpower the longer the day goes on, but because they overlook the rewards from their efforts. Depletion may not relate to a finite resource being exhausted, so much as preferences and priorities fluctuating.
Fundamentally, we shun behaviors that don’t engage us, and seek actions that do—even when they take us further away from our long-term goals.
This is the real cause of a lack of self-control.
Therefore, you want to make the choices that will be aligned with your goals as easy and attractive as possible.
If you struggle with overeating, ditching diets and all of their rules and restrictions will be one of the most important moves you can make to help eliminate the overpowering cravings that can come from feeling deprived.
As well, if you struggle with emotional eating, learning emotional processing skills will be necessary to make it easier to choose not to use food for self-soothing—one of the core areas of practice in my Food Body Self® program.
And, you can find ways to increase your motivation in order to shift your perception of your goals (and the process of getting there) to be more rewarding than immediately gratifying distractions. (Check out these articles to learn how to do so for your movement habits and your eating habits, too.)
Your Self-Control Mindset Matters, Too
The lens in which we view our restraint has also been found to influence how we utilize self-control abilities far more than whether we have limited reserves or not.
There’s evidence to show that supposed diminishing willpower reserves can simply be caused by the way we think about this concept and not necessarily our true physical and mental ceilings [6].
Early self-control research hypothesized that the ingestion of glucose could enhance self-control. Dr Carol Dweck, a pioneering researcher in the field of motivation, and her colleagues argued, however, the effect of this energy boost is principally owed to psychological processes more than physiological ones [7].
They studied how people displayed self-control when fatigued and were told to drink a sugar-laden lemonade beverage to provide them with that supposed much-needed energy boost.
Those informed that self-control was unlimited didn’t display any signs of supposed ego depletion when performing a word/color association task. They didn’t require that energy boost to maintain a higher level of willpower.
Those, however, who were led to believe self-control was limited, performed poorly on the same task. They presumed they’d expended any reserves of restraint they had and, therefore, couldn’t function any better, despite ingesting that purported energy boost.
Similarly, other studies have shown that when people believe they have depleted their mental energy, their performance—specifically in anagram-related tasks—diminishes. [8]
It appears that self-control may be another paradigm illustrating how belief, not necessarily our physiology, can drive behavior.
Your perception of mental depletion, not the actual amount of work required to “stay on track” or “say no” determines your ability to exhibit irrepressible self-control.
Shifting Your Own Beliefs About Self-Control
It could be assumed that if willpower was a limited resource, we could train it—just like going to the gym—to improve its influence. As we now know, willpower isn’t necessarily consigned to limited resources, employing tactics like this isn’t going to be as beneficial as once thought.
The beliefs, thoughts, and values we possess surrounding that tug-of-war between instant gratification and long-term reward matter more.
Telling ourselves, “I can never get myself to do what I say I’ll do,” or, “I’ll never be able to display as much willpower as my best friend,” reinforces the belief that pre-set boundaries influence self-control—that willpower is limited, and we can’t improve it.
As we now know that everyone possesses near-enough unlimited levels of self-control—and this is ostensibly determined by that effort, autonomy, and motivation—our task is in learning how to implement that self-discipline, instead.
Whenever you encounter a situation that demands willpower, it’s important to remind yourself that you already possess the requisite self-control to shift your focus toward your long-term aspirations. Recalling that the mental fatigue you’re experiencing is nothing but a subjective feeling will enhance your decision-making process.
It’s not because you fail to say “no,” it’s because you’re demotivated.
It’s not because you’re weak-willed and addicted to chocolate, it’s because you’re finding the task at hand effortful—perhaps because the diet rules you’ve been attempting to follow have been too restrictive.
It’s not because you don’t have the discipline to go to the gym, it’s because you don’t believe you have control over your behavior (like when you tell yourself you “should” go).
Learning to harness the rational side of your brain, in these situations, will enable you to focus on forming the right choices—and overcome any supposed self-control deficiencies.
It is time, ultimately, to start believing in yourself.
You no longer find it challenging to avoid those post-dinner snacks when you’re not hungry, but have the ability to stay mindful instead.
You no longer run short on willpower reserves three weeks into your health and fitness journey, but maybe haven’t tapped into the appropriate motivational stores yet, like how much you enjoy the movement you choose.
You no longer “lack self-control,” but struggle to find the balance between immediate gratification and sitting with discomfort.
You now shift your mindset around self-control to one of confidence and trust.
You believe you have the willingness to exert effort and enjoyment towards the task at hand.
You now have a new way of thinking about self-control.
New Ways of Getting Help
Long-gone are the days of old-school behavior change tactics and rigid health rules. The Food Body Self® program has been designed to keep you moving toward your North Star with the best ways to help you stay on track with your health and fitness behaviors.
Whether it be finding new ways to display self-control, novel strategies to stay mindful of your relationship with food, or unearthing different tactics to help cultivate added motivation, we’re always helping our students find new ways to tackle and conquer their goals.
If you’re growing ever frustrated with the long list of archaic plans and programs you’ve been trying, it may well be time to try something new.
References
1. Baumeister, R. F., Heatherton, T. F., & Tice, D. M. (1994). Losing control: How and why people fail at self-regulation. Academic Press.
2. Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., & Tice, D. M. (1998). Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(5), 1252–1265
3. Hirt, E.R., Clarkson, J.J., & Jia, L. (2016). Self-Regulation and Ego Control. Academic Press
4. Heckman, B. W., Ditre, J. W., & Brandon, T. H. (2012). The restorative effects of smoking upon self-control resources: A negative reinforcement pathway. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121(1), 244–249.
5. Muraven, M., Slessavera, E. (2003). Mechanisms of Self-Control Failure: Motivation and Limited Resources. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(7), 894-906.
6. Clarkson, J. J., Otto, A. S., Hassey, R., & Hirt, E. R. (2016). Perceived mental fatigue and self-control. In E. R. Hirt, J. J. Clarkson, & L. Jia (Eds.), Self-regulation and ego control (pp. 185–202). Elsevier Academic Press
7. Job, V., Walton, G. M., Bernecker, K., & Dweck, C. S. (2013). Beliefs about willpower determine the impact of glucose on self-control. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(37), 14837–14842.
8. Clarkson, J. J., Hirt, E. R., Jia, L., & Alexander, M. B. (2010). When perception is more than reality: The effects of perceived versus actual resource depletion on self-regulatory behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(1), 29–46.