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.
How to Build Willpower for the Weak
41–50 of 58 posts
Re: How to Build Willpower for the Weak
#42My willpower is directly proportional to the amount of coffee I drink.
Re: How to Build Willpower for the Weak
#43I'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.
Re: How to Build Willpower for the Weak
#44I 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 ove…
Pushing yourself to stay awake is probably not something you should be doing if you want to function at max mental and physical capacity.
Re: How to Build Willpower for the Weak
#45Something 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 t…
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).
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.
Re: How to Build Willpower for the Weak
#46I 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. Pr…
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...
Re: How to Build Willpower for the Weak
#47Something 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 t…
And interestingly, these two actions are controlled by two different parts of the brain. So technically, there are two "reserves" of willpower.
I've been reading a lot of research lately and sadly, it looks like willpower is determined by how developed (determined by genetics) or active (determined by exertion of willpower) are the prefrontal cortex regions.
We can train ourselves to have more willpower by exercising these parts of the brain regularly, but not by much. We hit our personal limit pretty fast and the best we can do then is to limit the amount of decisions we make...
Re: How to Build Willpower for the Weak
#48I 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.
Re: How to Build Willpower for the Weak
#49I 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 s…
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.
Fruit is far healthier than junk food.
Re: How to Build Willpower for the Weak
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
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.
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.