
Why Change Is So Hard: Self-Control Is Exhaustible - raphar
http://www.fastcompany.com/video/why-change-is-so-hard-self-control-is-exhaustible
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goodside
As several others have pointed out, the study in this article, as described,
is methodologically flawed. Regardless, what they were attempting to show has
been established extensively by R. F. Baumeister of Florida State. A good
review of the literature is available from Gailliot and Baumeister (2007):
[http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=120307599830563549...](http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=12030759983056354922&hl=en&as_sdt=20000000000&as_vis=1)

The abstract:

"Past research indicates that self-control relies on some sort of limited
energy source. This review suggests that blood glucose is one important part
of the energy source of self-control. Acts of self-control deplete relatively
large amounts of glucose. Self-control failures are more likely when glucose
is low or cannot be mobilized effectively to the brain (i.e., when insulin is
low or insensitive). Restoring glucose to a sufficient level typically
improves self-control. Numerous self-control behaviors fit this pattern,
including controlling attention, regulating emotions, quitting smoking, coping
with stress, resisting impulsivity, and refraining from criminal and
aggressive behavior. Alcohol reduces glucose throughout the brain and body and
likewise impairs many forms of self-control. Furthermore, self-control failure
is most likely during times of the day when glucose is used least effectively.
Self-control thus appears highly susceptible to glucose. Self-control benefits
numerous social and interpersonal processes. Glucose might therefore be
related to a broad range of social behavior."

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ardit33
Interesting, but the experiment there seems to be flawed. Cookies have a lot
more sugar/glucose than radishes and it changes your blood sugar levels a lot
more, so you'd expect right after eating the people that ate cookies will have
more energy to persist on the task.

It doesn't quite prove what they are trying to prove (that self control and
change are exhausting). They should have tried it with something else that was
tempting and that was not food.

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eavc
There's another study (that I can't find right now, maybe someone will help
me) in which self-control was measured by how long someone could keep their
arm submerged in icy water.

Ones who had their discipline taxed before the exercise performed dramatically
worse than those who hadn't.

So that one had nothing to do with food and showed similar results.

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joe_the_user
Yes, there are apparently lots of studies about this.

Where would summary of these result be found?

Well, here's a couple

[http://management.ucsd.edu/faculty/seminars/2009/papers/rang...](http://management.ucsd.edu/faculty/seminars/2009/papers/rangel.pdf)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion>

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eavc
Great find, thank you.

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nhuber
I like to think of my self-control as a muscle. Yes, it gets worn out and
needs a lazy Sunday every once in a while as the study shows, but at the same
time the more I exercise it, the stronger it gets.

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houseabsolute
QQ: Given this, how _is_ it possible to change as a person? For example, you
read these rare stories of overweight guys really turning their lives around
and becoming all out studs. How do they do something like that?

~~~
dkarl
Self-control only applies to situations where your rational mind overrules
irrational impulses. If eating righting and exercising requires self-control,
it is because your mind has a deep conviction that it's actually best for you
to eat a lot and not exercise. You've figured out the right strategy, but your
faith in it is as shallow as your rational mind. At deeper levels, you're
still deluded. However, you can deepen your convictions through carefully
examined and honestly felt experience. For example, through regular exercise,
you can learn to associate exercise with the good feelings and good results it
produces. (It's interesting how neatly this meshes with the Buddhist belief
that harmful behavior arises from delusion, and that delusion is maintained
not only by ignorance but by compulsive doubt of what one rationally knows to
be true.)

Unfortunately, your false beliefs (exercise is pointless, exercise will make
me feel bad, ordering a pizza will make me feel good, I'm not the kind of
quality person who exercises and eats right anyway) start to come back when
you stop exercising and eating right. I don't believe you can ever completely
eradicate them. An addict is always an addict. For some reason, early-
imprinted delusions are always more comfortable than our learned wisdom, and
we tend to revert to them under stress. So the fight is never-ending, though
happily it demands less self-discipline as time passes.

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mattmanser
Backed up by anything? As this seems a little like wishful thinking.

From what I've read, generally speaking weightloss from dieting/exercise is
usually 1.5-2 stones then you put back on .5 stone. Some people then revert
back to original weight as they adopt their previous lifestyle.

It's got little to do with beliefs and delusions, far more to do with treating
losing weight as a temporary thing then reverting to a previous lifestyle,
thinking all I have to do is eat a little less, drink a little less than I did
once I'm x stone. They end the diet with 'and now I shall be good because I'm
happy' without actually intending to change their original lifestyle. They
never intended to keep up the diet indefinitely. So they never had a belief
that a diet was how they should live the rest of their life, but made no
serious attempt to change their lifestyle.

That's my impression of it anyway, having done this once to myself and now
pondering on how I'm back to my original weight.

On a related note, I've certainly read of people saying that you can build up
periods of concentration (e.g. in this instance it was writing), start slow
with a couple of hours and build up every day and eventually you can work
yourself up to long periods of time of concentration without noticing it. This
is perhaps a habit changing method.

I don't know, I'm no expert, that's just my best guess.

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dkarl
Backed up with my own weight loss and fitness.

Anyone who thinks dieting is a temporary state is doomed; it's easy to
categorize that as a delusion.

Your mind has a natural anxiety about breaking habits (it's rather
superstitious) and also a natural aversion to putting effort into anything.
That's why it's so easy to do something when you have enthusiasm for it and so
hard once the enthusiasm wears off: enthusiasm is essentially excitement based
on the belief that something will generate positive results. I don't know why
enthusiasm seems to peak quickly and then die off, but I treat it as an
opportunity to form new habits and to educate myself through experiences that
would be difficult to bring about otherwise because of my natural laziness.
Most long-lasting changes in my life are the residual effects of waves of
enthusiasm that carried me for a while and then subsided. I've never been able
to make changes strictly incrementally; it's always three steps forward and
one step back (which I guess is that .5 stone you're talking about.)

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xavoy
Irrespective of the legitimacy of this study, it does make a lot of sense. You
see a lot of people trying to turn their life around, especially around the
new year. Eating healthier foods, doing more exercise, cutting back on alcohol
or smoking. You see them a couple of weeks later and the stress levels caused
by this amount of change is causing more damage than the unhealthy habits they
are trying to break. You see them a month later and they are back to their old
habits, and sometimes with a vengeance.

I've always advocated slow change. Choose one thing, and just make sure you
are mindful of that. Practice this day to day. Don't say "I'll stick it out
for three months and see how I go", just take it day to day. Then, a month
down the track, see how that person who hasn't eaten fast food for the last
thirty days feels about going to Macca's. Maybe, that person would rather have
a home made sandwich, or maybe not, but just wait and see and stop telling
yourself stories.

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Tichy
I've heard this from other studies, but this one seems less convincing.
Couldn't just be "damn those scientists, they won't even give me cookies. My
motivation for trying their task just dropped off a cliff"? At the very least,
they could have checked by giving other participants money or no money for
doing the task?

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deadmansshoes
Are peoples' levels of gullibility also exhaustible, or do we have to define a
whole swathe of human characteristics based on some students, radishes, and
cookies?

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joe_the_user
All of these snippets are fascinating.

I can believe that this is a real phenomena.

But every discussion I've read so far seems like a snippet, a _gloss_ , just a
bit of information to get me to believe this but not enough for me to feel I
understand what's happening.

What really qualifies as self control here? Refusing temptation? Concentrating
on something? Not following habit? Suppose what I'm _used-to_ is eating
radishes but I how good cookies are good?

Does anyone have a reference for an article or book that really _digs_ into
this subject, give more than or two experiments, gives some quantification or
theory or some kind of deeper understanding of this. I'm curious now but
frustrated.

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Jun8
This is so _true_ , I know from personal experience. So, since we all start
with a fixed amount of self control, better save it for things that make more
impact, which is a dynamically changing list from day to day. Example: If
you'll be doing tons of boring development today, splurge on the lunch.

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eru
If it was possible to practise having more self-control, you should probably
work on a training schedule.

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stcredzero
Self Control is exhaustible, but variable schedule of reward will keep you
going until you die! Hmmm.

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username3
Self-control is like a muscle?

