How Do I Turn Won't Power into Willpower?

Earlier this year we discussed New Year's resolutions. How are you doing at keeping them? If you have, that's great. If you haven't you are like many people who have difficulty with finding the willpower to stick to their goals. One thing that we psychologists are good at is turning to the research to find solutions to the problems we face. Luckily, I recently had the privilege of attending a presentation on willpower at the 2014 APA State Leadership Conference by Dr. Mark Muraven, a researcher at SUNY Albany. He shared some really interesting ideas about willpower.

One helpful bit of information from his presentation is that using an “implementation intention” can help you to be more successful. Usually these intentions take the form of “if-then” statements that help people plan for obstacles to achieving their goal. For example, someone who is trying to avoid sweets might say, "If anyone brings sweets to work today, then I will eat some almonds instead." Research has shown that implementation intentions improve self-control even when people's willpower had been depleted. Another way to set an intention is to do things that help support your intention. This may mean throwing out the sweets in the house to prevent snacking on them or setting out your running clothes by the bed so they are there when you wake up for your run in the morning. Planning, acting, and thinking like you will be successful helps to support you to get there.

Research also suggests that willpower is a somewhat limited resource. Even though it also suggests that we have a reserve of willpower that can be called upon given the right motivation under normal circumstances we only have so much. This means that making a list of ten New Year's resolutions was probably not the best idea. Simultaneously trying to quit smoking, lose weight, and get out of debt may be too difficult. Choosing one important goal at a time to work on can help to conserve the willpower you do have to be successful.

As with almost anything it also helps to strengthen the muscles you're going ot use in any task. According to research, willpower is very much like a muscle. Researchers found that when people were asked to practice willpower prior to working on something like quitting smoking they were more successful at their goal. So practicing willpower regularly could help you to be more successful in the long run.

There are lots of great researchers like Dr. Muraven that have learned a lot of very helpful things about willpower. Their insights and the information they've learned through their research can be a very helpful resource to those of us who have goals to accomplish. The video below is from Kelly McGonigal about her book The willpower Instinct, another great resource on willpower. Even if you have had a setback or two in accomplishing your resolution now is a perfect time to refocus your attention on an important goal and set an intention that will help you to succeed!

Webb, T., & Muraven, M. (2010). Practicing self-control lowers the risk of smoking lapse. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 24(3), 446–452.

 Muraven, M., & Slessareva, E. (2003). Mechanisms of self-control failure: Motivation and limited resources. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(7), 894–906.

Muraven, M., et al. (1999). Longitudinal improvement of self-regulation through practice: Building self-control strength through repeated exercise. Journal of Social Psychology, 139(4), 446–457

Sheeran, P. (2003). Can implementation intentions help to overcome ego depletion? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39(3), 279–286.