Willpower Instinct Flashcards
When tempted by a cue
if you succumb now, there is a better chance you will succumb later. Keep in my end if you continue the behaviour, the negative effects will come,
Deep Breathing
When confronted with a desire, start timing your breaths, slowing down to four to 6 breaths a minute, focusing on the exhalation. This gives a reserve of willpower. Regular Practice of this technique can make you more resilient to stress and build willpower reserve.
Green Willpower
exercise in greenspace, low energy really helps.
exercise restores, rather than drains, your energy and willpower.
Stress
is the enemy of willpower. Stress drains willpower faster than anything. self control incompatible with stress.
Sleep
deprivation prevents body from absorbing glucose properly.
In a crunch, taking a short nap can restore focus, even if you didn’t get much sleep the night before.
7-9 hours.
When you find yourself not doing your willpower task, consider what your are doing instead of saying yes to sleep.
Eat the Frog
Highest in the morning and decreases as the day goes on.
Anytime you have to fight an impulse, filter out distractions, weigh competing goals, or make yourself do something difficult, you use a little more of your willpower.
Willpower Diet
Resorting to high fat, high sugar diet will lead to a self control crash and burn. In the long term, blood sugar spikes and crashes can interfere with the body’s and brain’s ability to use sugar— meaning you could end up with high sugar but low energy
Low glycemic diet—lean proteins, nuts and beans, high fibre grains and cereals, and most fruits and vegetables—basically fruits that looks like its natural state and does not have a ton of added sugar, fat, and chemicals.
Strengthen I won’t power
Commit to not swearing, a habit of speech, crossing or not crossing your legs when you sit, or using a non dominant hand for tasks
Strengthen I will Power
Commit to doing something every day, just for the practice of building a habit and not making excuses.
Strengthen Self Monitoring
Keep track of something you don’t usually—spending, time spent online or watching tv, calories.
Is your exhaustion real?
Too often we use the first feeling of fatigue as a reason to skip exercise, procrastinate, order a pizza. But you have more willpower than you think. The next time you find yourself too tired, challenge yourself to go beyond that first feeling of fatigue.
Promise that practice would improve performance on a difficult task helped the students push past willpower exhaustion.
To Renew strength, tap into I want power
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- How will you benefit from succeeding at this challenge? What is the payoff for you personally? Greater health, happiness, freedom, financial security, success?
- Who else will benefit if you succeed at this challenge? Surely there are others who depend on you and are affected by your choices. How does your behaviour influence family friends, coworkers, employees/ employer and community? how will your success help them?
- Imagine that this challenge will get easier over time if you are willing to do what is difficult now. Can you imagine what your life will be like, and how you will feel about yourself, as you make progress on this challenge? Is some discomfort now worth it if you know it is only a temporary part of your progress?
Self Control muscle
Self Control is like a muscles. It gets tired from use, but regular exercise makes it stronger.
When you are trying to make a big change of transform an old habit, look for a small way to practice self control that strengthens your willpower but doesn’t overwhelm it completely.
Revoke License, Remember the Why
The next time you find yourself using good behaviour to justify indulging, pause and remember when you succeeded and resisted temptation.
Licensing indulgence today for better behaviour tomorrow: I’ll do it once more and thats it.
You need to look at what you have done and conclude that you must really care about your goal, so much so that you want to do even more to reach it. I did that because i wanted to.
For better self control, forget virtue and focus on goals and values.
Goal liberation
Self control success satisfies the higher self. When you make progress towards your long term goal, your brain—turns off the mental processes that were driving the long term goal. It will then turn to the still unsatisfied self indulgence.
Variability of Behaviour
wHEN YOU WANT TO change a behaviour, aim to reduce the variability of behaviour, not the behaviour itself.View every choice you make as a commitment to all future choices. So instead of asking do i want this candy bar now? Ask yourself do i want the consequence of eating a candy bar every afternoon for the next year?
If you should do something, instead of asking would i rather do this today or tomorrow? as yourself “do i really want the consequences of always putting it off?”
Virtuous halo
we feel so good about ordering something healthy, our next indulgence doesn’t feel sinful at all.
When we want permission to indulge, we’ll take any hint of virtue as justification to give in.