The diminishing power of willpower

For many, a new year brings a determination to break old habits or start new, positive ones.

At this time of year “holiday treats and year-end sales confront us at every turn”, so we indulge because it would be “Scrooge-like” to refuse, said psychologist Angela Duckworth in The New York Times. The logical conclusion would be to “try harder” to say no, but studying how people achieve their goals, the opposite may be true. “Willpower is overrated.”

‘Cultural hangover’

Though unwavering self-control may be lauded socially, most successful people “rarely rely on inner fortitude to resist temptations”, said Duckworth. Instead, they exercise “situational agency”, which helps them avoid situations where self-control is required and “minimise the need for willpower in the first place”.

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If you want to keep off social media, avoid owning a smartphone, like Ed Sheeran and Zadie Smith. If you duck out of an early morning run with feeble excuses, make sure your “shoes are warm, dry and waiting”, like former Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee. Making situations more favourable doesn’t “erode grit”; in fact, it has “quite the opposite” effect.

Strengthening our “willpower muscle” has been seen as “just as important as working out at the gym”, said The Observer. Kicking bad habits, and staving off cravings, are marketed as the “key to health and happiness”, but is it possible to “supercharge” willpower? For the last 30 or so years, willpower has been perceived as a “finite resource”, or a “battery that can be drained”, so finding a workaround would theoretically be “akin to asking a genie for infinite wishes”.

However, there are many legitimate reasons why willpower can be diminished. “Difficulties concentrating or achieving” at work or school can be branded as a lack of self-control, when in fact there may be “undiagnosed ADHD, Tourette syndrome or another neurodivergent condition”. Likewise, a lack of willpower may be a “sign we’re over-stretched and need rest”, which could snowball into more serious health problems.

Believing in willpower alone as a means to tackle temptation head-on is a “cultural hangover”, said behavioural scientist Michael Hallsworth in The i Paper. We have been conditioned to believe that it is “more virtuous to fail” in succumbing to desires than to “succeed with help”. But “that attitude is a trap”. If we use aids, short-cuts or tools to sidestep raw “white-knuckling” self-determination, we feel judged or inferior, but that itself can act as a barrier to success.

For those seeking weight loss, the concept of willpower has become a “loaded term”, said the BBC. Many will be familiar with phrases like “it's simple, just eat less”, or “personal responsibility” when confronting obesity. This is “only a fraction” of the weight-loss process.

In addition to external pressures, “what also matters is how you think about it” internally. There are two types of willpower: “flexible” and “rigid”. When someone perceives self-control as “rigid”, once broken, there is no way back. “If you succumb to temptation you basically give in”.

Flexible willpower means that once a rule is broken, it is acknowledged and not broken again. “Needless to say, being flexible is much more successful” for those with long-term goals, said psychologist Eleanor Bryant.

‘Commitment devices’

There is no shame in relying on tricks and tips to achieve your goals, said Hallsworth. “Commitment devices” such as public pledges – think posting your intention to run a half marathon on social media – hold you accountable by “weaponising social pressure against yourself”.

If “soft penalties” don’t cut it, “ratchet up the consequences”. A popular method is donating money to a cause you dislike if you break your rule. Though not infallible, setting up built-in restrictions, such as screen time or “delay apps”, can also be a step in the right direction.

Instead of the threat of punishment, use incentives, psychologist Kimberley Wilson told BBC Radio 4’s “What’s Up Docs?” By telling yourself a “positive story”, you give yourself the “best chance to achieve your goal” and the “rest is likely to follow”.

Be conscious of social pressure, be wary of comparing yourself to others’ achievements and don’t be put off by a “momentary stumble”. With “planning, self-belief and the will to change”, goals can still be achieved, “without a drop of willpower in sight”.