Overcoming the Myth of Fixed Willpower: Strategies for Enhancing Self-Control

We all encounter challenging situations that put our self-control to the test. As a barista, you may encounter rude and difficult customers, yet manage to remain calm and composed. Or, you may be working on a critical project that demands your unwavering focus and attention without distractions. If you’re on a diet, you may have spent hours resisting the temptation to indulge in cookies, while they silently call out to you.

In each of these scenarios, you rely on your willpower, which psychologists define as the ability to resist short-term temptations and overcome unwanted thoughts, feelings, or impulses. Some individuals seem to have more considerable reservoirs of willpower than others, making it easier for them to control their emotions, avoid procrastination, and stick to their goals, without ever seeming to lose their iron grip on their behaviour. In fact, you may know some fortunate people who, after a long day at work, still have the resolve to engage in productive activities such as exercising, while you may give in to your cravings for junk food and mindless TV watching.

Our levels of self-control and mental focus appear to be shaped by our mindset, and recent studies suggest effective strategies to increase willpower for anyone, with significant benefits for health, productivity, and overall well-being.

The Depleted Ego

Until recently, the prevailing psychological theory proposed that willpower operates like a battery. At the beginning of the day, you have a full charge, but every time you have to control your thoughts, feelings or behaviour, you drain the battery’s energy. Without adequate rest and recharge, the battery’s energy depletes to a point where it becomes increasingly challenging to maintain your patience and concentration, and resist temptation.

Laboratory tests appeared to provide evidence for this process. For example, if participants were asked to resist eating cookies that were left temptingly on a table, they subsequently showed less persistence when solving a mathematical problem. This was because their reserves of willpower had been exhausted. Drawing on the Freudian term for the part of the mind responsible for reining in our impulses, this process was known as “ego depletion.” People who had high self-control might have more significant reserves of willpower initially, but even they would be worn down when placed under pressure.

In 2010, psychologist Veronika Job challenged the prevailing theory of willpower as a finite resource, proposing instead that it depended on people’s underlying beliefs. Job, a professor of motivation psychology at the University of Vienna, designed a questionnaire to gauge participants’ views on willpower. The questionnaire included statements that participants rated on a scale of 1 (strongly agree) to 6 (strongly disagree), such as “When situations accumulate that challenge you with temptations, it gets more and more difficult to resist temptations.” Participants who agreed more with the first two statements were considered to have a “limited” view of willpower, while those who agreed more with the second two statements were considered to have a “non-limited” view.

Job then tested the participants’ mental focus, which is considered to depend on our reserves of willpower. Participants with a limited view of willpower showed signs of ego depletion – their mental focus declined after performing a mentally taxing activity. Those with a non-limited view, however, did not show any signs of ego depletion; their mental focus remained consistent.

The participants’ mindsets about willpower appeared to be self-fulfilling prophecies. Those who believed that their willpower was easily depleted found it harder to resist temptation and maintain mental focus, while those who believed that “mental stamina fuels itself” experienced no decline in their mental focus.

Job has replicated her findings in various contexts. For instance, in collaboration with Krishna Savani at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, she discovered that willpower mindsets vary across countries. They found that non-limited mindsets were more prevalent among Indian students than those in the USA, and this was reflected in tests of their mental stamina.

Although some scientists have debated the reliability of laboratory tests on ego depletion in recent years, Job has also demonstrated that people’s willpower mindsets are associated with real-life outcomes. She asked university students to complete questionnaires twice a day about their activities over two non-consecutive weekly periods. As expected, some days had much higher demands than others, leading to feelings of exhaustion. Most participants recovered somewhat overnight, but those with non-limited mindsets actually experienced an increase in their productivity the next day, as if they had been energized by the extra pressure. Once again, it seemed that their belief that “mental stamina fuels itself” had become their reality.

Further studies indicated that willpower mindsets could predict students’ procrastination levels in the run-up to exams, with those holding non-limited views showing less time-wasting and ultimately achieving higher grades. When facing high pressure from their studies, students with non-limited views were also better able to maintain self-control in other areas of life, such as consuming fast food or going on impulsive spending sprees. Conversely, those who believed their willpower was easily depleted were more prone to such vices, presumably because they felt that their reserves of self-control had already been drained by their academic work.

Galvanizing Your Willpower: The Power of Beliefs in Mental Stamina

The findings presented here may provide a source of self-satisfaction for individuals with a non-limited mindset about willpower. However, what can those who believe that their self-control reserves can easily be depleted do to shift their mindset? Job’s research suggests that reading short, accessible texts on the topic can help change beliefs, at least in the short term. It appears that knowledge is indeed power, and reading this article might have already initiated a strengthening of one’s mental stamina. Sharing this newfound knowledge with others can further solidify this shift in mindset, a phenomenon referred to as the “saying-is-believing effect,” while also spreading positive attitudes to others.

It is possible to teach the non-limited nature of willpower at a young age. Stanford University and University of Pennsylvania researchers recently created a storybook that conveyed the idea that exerting willpower can be energizing, rather than depleting, and that self-control can improve with practice. Children who heard this story demonstrated greater self-control in a delayed gratification test, where they had to resist a small reward in order to receive a larger one later, compared to their peers who heard a different tale.

One effective strategy for changing your mindset is to recall a time when you engaged in a mentally demanding task solely for the pleasure of the activity. Perhaps there is a job at work that others find challenging but you find rewarding, or a hobby, like learning a new piece on the piano, that requires intense concentration but feels effortless for you. Recent research has shown that such recollection naturally shifts people’s beliefs towards the non-limited mindset, as they perceive proof of their own mental endurance.

To gather further evidence, you can begin with small tests of self-control that can bring about a positive change in your life, such as refraining from snacking for a couple of weeks, disconnecting from social media during work, or being more patient with a loved one who irritates you. Once you demonstrate to yourself that your willpower can grow, you may find it easier to resist other types of temptation or distraction.

Immediate miracles should not be expected, but persistence should lead to a shift in mindset and an increased ability to master your thoughts, feelings, and behavior, which will drive you towards your goals.