
How to Build Willpower for the Weak - mofeeta
http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/22/how-to-build-willpower-for-the-weak/
======
mistercow
Something I've yet to see explored is the difference between negative and
positive willpower. For example, I find it very difficult to motivate myself
to do something I don't want to do, and easy to procrastinate. But it is
relatively easy for me to have the willpower _not_ to do something that I _do_
want to do.

On the other hand, many people seem to have the opposite problem; they find it
relatively easy to do things that are unpleasant, but difficult to restrain
themselves from indulging in the things that they enjoy.

Of course, you can have a mix of both problems, and it might vary based on
what makes the activity unpleasant or pleasant. If something is physically
addictive, then someone with strong restraint might find an exception there.
And if a task is stressful or painful rather than merely cumbersome or boring,
someone with strong proactive willpower might still have difficulty with it.

But I think it's worth investigating because it seems plausible that these are
entirely different problems conflated by language. And it seems likely that
totally different strategies would be needed for managing them.

~~~
return0
When the task requires some effort, it's obvious that it's easier to just not
do it, even if desirable. The least effort it requires, the harder it is to
deny it (e.g. smoking).

~~~
mistercow
Maybe, but I'm not sure that always holds up. Playing video games requires
effort, but many people find it difficult to refrain from that. This may be
confounded somewhat, since in some cases procrastination might be mistaken for
lack of restraint. But I don't think that's always the case.

~~~
mkmkmmmmm
There must be a distinction between deliberate effort and flow effort? One
weird thing I note is that reading highly technical articles online is easier
to make myself do than reading technical papers (even if the article is
roughly as difficult). It's like the same task but the classification causes
me to make different decisions.

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kamaal
I always see the best way to develop will power towards doing something is to
try and take the smallest step possible in doing it. I've had tremendous
success with it. Can't stay awake till 3 AM in the morning to code? Try doing
it till 22:00, then try pushing until 22:15, then till 22:30. In short your
objective should be not giving up for the next 15 minutes, and when that is
over; the next 15, and when that is over; 15 minutes after than... till you
get to where you were aiming.

Chances are you will break, but with time and patience you can only get
better.

I had this challenge once with a friend. He told me being a nerd I had the
worst fitness ever; after a good debate why workout doesn't matter he told me
I wouldn't last 5 minutes on a thread mill- The very next day I ran(more like
walking very fast) for 45 minutes. Of course I was nearly collapsing after
that. By my point was never to run 45 minutes. It was to run the next 3
minutes without giving up, slow down when its overwhelming and keep going at a
steady speed and aim to not give up for the next immediate 3 minutes.

I've tried everything else. Drinking sugar cane juice, eating a snack, sipping
tea. Nothing has worked apart for that _' Don't give up in the next x
minutes'_ strategy. I'm lead to believe this is common in sports too, Test
cricket for that matter is believed that, can be excelled by players who can
play from a session to session. Just focus on playing this session well.

~~~
stevecooperorg
Yeah -- if willpower is a muscle, then you've got to keep running to
exhaustion. People used to call that 'character building.'

~~~
kamaal
You've got to keep doing things until exhaustion(which it self is a moving
target, and you won't reach exhaustion easily or quickly if you practice it
enough number of times).

Will power is basically getting yourself to do something which you can't
because of reasons outside your interest, passion etc. Stuff like working
under pressure, duress, extreme tiredness and in faces of adversity.

If you are lazy, dispassionate or just bored about something. Will power won't
help your there.

~~~
olalonde
> If you are lazy, dispassionate or just bored about something. Will power
> won't help your there.

Maybe I am being overly nit-picky here but I feel the last paragraph
completely contradicts the rest of your comment.

At first you claim that will power can overcome a lack of passion but then you
say that will power can't help you if you are dispassionate/bored.

~~~
kamaal
Let me clarify.

There is a massive difference between 'Pain' and 'Disinterest'.

Lets say you are super passionate about making the next big programming
language. The task is huge, its monstrous. But you go about it eventually,
meanwhile you stretching beyond means. You stay up awake whole nights, you are
working weekends, you've stopped seeing your friends. All that 18 hr/day work
is causing you immense tiredness, there is reasonable amount of failure you
are seeing every day. All that failure and way things are going is humbling
you down. Now despite there is pain here, you are still carrying on. Because
you go on and on, despite situation and find ways to just keep doing it; Until
you eventually win. This is what is will power.

There is a second scenario. You come to office 9 AM every day sharp. There is
build failure you need to look into, which is some trivial ftp call timing
out. You have nothing serious or challenging. All your innovations and extra
efforts are treated by your immediate superiors as threat-to-their-positions
and crushed ASAP. In fact all you do is fix builds, fix trivial bugs and add
an occasional feature. Your time goes in hearing dis interesting stories of
what totally irrelevant issues your colleagues are upon during stand ups, your
afternoons are full of filling up boring time sheets and agile management
software. You are doing this only because you want a health insurance, some
assurance no one will fire you ASAP and some comfort pillow. You are just
seasoned to do this routine, because of some fear of failure.

While the first situation has tremendous pain associated with it, you are
putting up effort in situations where others can't.

The second one is clearly the craving for safety, fear of failure and total
non willingness to change unless forced to. This is some what opposite of Will
power, because if you had it- you would be doing something else.

~~~
mattlutze
In the second case, then, will power would be helpful?

------
stevecooperorg
"Researchers say we humans have a limited supply of willpower" \-- it's an
interesting idea but worth noting there are counter-claims.

Particularly, it turns out that this may be self-fulfilling prophecy -- people
who subscribe to the limited willpower hypothesis tend to run out of willpower
more quickly[1]

What's interesting here, for those looking to practically increase their
willpower, is that treating your willpower as delicate and fundamentally
limited might be part of the problem.

Personally, I'd like to subscribe to the 'abundant willpower' hypothesis, if
that turns out to be the more powerful premise. (But then, I'd also like some
cake. What can you do? ;) )

[1] [http://www.livescience.com/38980-willpower-is-not-a-
finite-r...](http://www.livescience.com/38980-willpower-is-not-a-finite-
resource.html)

~~~
hrkristian
Agreed. His initial example of hunger for one struck me as odd, as hunger is
cumulative, so really the only thing that happens when one is continually
offered food (one does not really want to eat) on an empty stomach is at some
point hunger wins by value, not "attrition".

This whole article would be perfect support for men&women who need a new
excuse for their cheating habits.

> I just get so many tempting offers during the day, eventually I had no
> choice in the matter.

------
bpizzi
I can confirm the article's introduction: willpower behave somehow like a
muscle. Or, at least, you can act as if it was so.

From my own (little and personal) experience, I've found it usefull to get
into the habit of flexing it whenever I can, if possible in public. Just
something like "ok, I'll go with you eating there, I'll just take a salad if
you don't mind". Sometime people don't take the opportunity to discuss it
further, but when they do it's an easy way to play the role of the guy who's
aim in life is to improve his willpower. Incarning a role is, from what I've
found so far, the best path to really become that person you want to be.

With time, I've found that there's a pattern that occurs when I'm placed in
front of a bad looking choice, and it seems more easy to counter that pattern
when it pops to mind, along with the memory of previous "willpower workout".

------
TheBiv
I don't know how to define "willpower" so I found the initial thesis of his
article off-putting.

However, Mr. Adams then appears to go into how he manages broad terms that are
vague (like willpower) by structuring that term around concrete things like
the dopamine rush he gets by being alone with his thoughts and treats the
"willpower" to work out as a package deal that includes a vague term with a
specific event.

Pretty cool little experience article that appears to give a little indication
of how he manages things he thinks he should do, with things he knows he will
do anyways to bundle up the positive reinforcement.

~~~
jotm
The "dopamine rush" is actually an endorphin rush - they make you feel good,
the dopamine is just released along with the endorphins to facilitate habit
formation (basically programming you to do that thing again in the future
since it makes you feel good). I think it's a distinction worth noting...

------
forgottenpaswrd
I do the same. I don't eat chocolate or any other sugar sh*t when I have
mangoes, apples, oranges or any other delicious fruit.

In Spain we have a selection of fantastic food, like "jamon" or cheese or fish
or nuts(don't eat Californias's ones, they don't taste at all, the best nuts
are the ugliest and dirty in the outside ones) so I prepare mini dishes in the
refrigerator so five times a day I open it and there is something delicious
and healthy. No need for pizzas or hamburgers(nothing wrong about good pizzas,
the Italian ones or good hamburgers from time to time).

Eating well gives you energy along the day that nothing is going to give.

Exercise is also not a problem in sunny Madrid, but when I travel to Europe or
Boston or Illinois I find it super hard to exercise while is freezing cold out
there and cloudy, even going to the gym is so much work.

~~~
asdasf
How is delicious fruit not "sugar shit" exactly? Eating poorly gives you
energy too. Energy is measured in calories. Consuming sufficient calories is
not a challenge.

~~~
a_c_s
Fruit is far healthier than junk food.

~~~
asdasf
>sugar is far healthier than sugar

Really? By what definition of "healthy"?

~~~
a_c_s
Fruit contains far more than just sugar: fiber for example, is great for you.
Vitamins and minerals are also, generally speaking, good for you.

Furthermore, eating fruit will not spike your blood sugar the same way an
equivalent amount of pure sugar or a caloric equivalent amount of junk food.

These are not controversial statements, there is plenty of actual research to
back this up.

Finally, there are many ways to heat healthfully, and fruit is not essential:
however it is unambiguously healthier for you than junk food.

~~~
asdasf
Yes, eating fruit will spike your blood sugar just like candy will. Notice how
diabetics need to eat candy or fruit if their blood sugar gets low? There's a
reason they say either one, because they have the same effect. Sugar is sugar.
You believe adding a tiny amount of a few vitamins that are easy to get well
over your RDA of already makes candy into health food. I believe candy is
still candy even with a bit of vitamin C in it.

------
cpplinuxdude
This is the least data-backed, and most drivel-filled article I have read on
hacker news. Seriously?

Anyway I strongly recommend "The power of habit: Why we do what we do, and how
to change" which is a scientific investigation into, well, the science of
habit, but more importantly the information contained in those pages is highly
usable.

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Habit-Why-What-
Change/dp/18479...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Habit-Why-What-
Change/dp/1847946240)

Not to mention the "Don't break the chain" principle, which inadvertently
makes you apply the most fundamental principle of good habit building:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36497](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36497)

------
patatino
"If we use up our willpower resisting one temptation we will have less in
reserve to resist the next. That’s a big deal because you don’t want to use up
all of your willpower resisting a cupcake.."

That is true, but also you can't avoid this situations because if "willpower
behave somehow like a muscle" you have to train it. It is hard to find a mix
between training your willpower and not spending too much willpower on
training and having nothing left.

I recommend everyone to read more about this topic, there are great books out
there which explain how willpower works in your brain and body.

One little trick helps me a lot.. If you look at your stuffed garage say to
yourself: what a beautiful pile of willpower training.

~~~
kamaal
I think a wrong concept is being circulated around. Will power is not energy,
and there isn't a 'bank' you are depleting. And there isn't a 'spending' will
power. If you are hungry, just go eat something and get back to work. Working
while running short on energy is one of the things where will power helps, and
not the only thing.

There are plenty of people who are very healthy and fit, but can't push for a
minute extra beyond their threshold of tolerance.

If you look at it that way, Will power almost has mystical effect surrounding
your ability to do certain things when they seem impossible to people outside.
Which is why not every one eating and living healthy is swimming the English
channel, or writing the next operating system, or playing the football world
cup finals, or some one in dire poverty rising their way by hard work.

These things can't be gained eating something or living a particular
lifestyle.

~~~
patatino
The prefrontal cortex regulates the three challenges "I will not", "I will"
and "I want". These three challenges cost energy everytime we make it.

That is what we call willpower. And almost everything you do needs willpower.
Willpower doesn't only come in if you wan't to push further.

~~~
kamaal
We require energy to do anything. Even to just merely exist.

But that isn't all there is to, is it?

------
charlieirish
Willpower is a fascinating subject. It often boils down to what Dan Ariely
calls 'Ego Depletion' whereby you are competing with yourself. Eventually you
will lose.

If you haven't seen it, it's worth watching the marshmallow experiment. You
can see that some young children seem to have an ability to enhance their
willpower at even a very early age. Adults who seem to be strong willed often
exhibit this behaviour in the form of routines.

There's more about the subject with tips on improving your will power here:
[http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/people-
dont/](http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/people-dont/)

------
Xcelerate
Fine, my comment was apparently irritating some people. I deleted it. It's
unfortunate I can't discuss something that's been bothering me with the HN
crowd.

~~~
011011100
Wow, you are so special.

Edit: I think you took it down for your own sake, not ours.

~~~
Xcelerate
You're not the friendliest person around. Do you delight in making me feel
bad?

~~~
011011100
How am I making you feel bad? By pointing out that you have an inflated self
perception? And if you disagree with that, then maybe you should have kept
your original post up.

------
skunkworks
I've thought a lot about willpower since Jason Shen posted his self-help ebook
on here a few weeks ago -- oddly, I have become a believer in cold shower
therapy -- and I've come to believe that willpower is indeed limited, but that
it can be "exercised" in a way by doing uncomfortable things.

However, I think that it's not so much that the exercise is increasing your
capacity of willpower, it's that you're training yourself for your activities
to use less willpower. Essentially, you can turn what would normally be
willpower draining conscious decisions into routine habits that don't require
any. Bad analogy, but you're not increasing your MP, you're just making it
cheaper to cast Cure.

Part of this process for me is learning and reinforcing new habits, but I
think there's also value in building confidence in your ability to form new
habits. When you see that you're capable of meaningful change, that little
jolt of happy chemical rewards serves to reinforce the metahabit of self
improvement.

------
mikro2nd
I wanted to read the article, but I just couldn't make myself do it.

------
icu
Thanks mofeeta, for this post.

I'd really recommend people seeking to increase their willpower (and
productivity) read Getting Stuff Done by David Allen. I'm a lot more organized
after reading this book and the author does talk about the scientific basis
for 'limited' willpower.

------
AtTheLast
I made some personal goals this month and have been tracking them. Willpower
has helped me toward accomplishing some of these goals, but motivation has
plays a much larger role. Perhaps motivation recharges the lost willpower.

------
raddoc
My willpower is directly proportional to the amount of coffee I drink.

------
a3voices
Your actions are largely based on your belief systems, knowledge, confidence,
and such. You don't need strong willpower, good sleep, or high energy to do
things.

