This article was taken from the July 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Struggling with self-control?
Luckily, there are shortcuts. Psychologist Roy Baumeister and journalist John Tierney, in Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, explain how smarts are as important as self-denial.
Spot the symptoms
Willpower is a limited resource: resisting one thing means you're likely to succumb to another. In an experiment, researchers found that "while depleted persons didn't show any single telltale emotion, they did react more strongly to all kinds of things." Icy water felt colder; a sad film made them sadder. "Look not for a single symptom but a change in the intensity of your feelings."
Munch
Glucose depletion affects willpower dramatically. "If you have a test, an important meeting or a vital project, don't take it on without glucose," write Baumeister and Tierney. "Don't thrash out a problem with your partner just before dinner." To maintain steady self-control, eat foods with a high glycaemic index: "Most vegetables, nuts, raw fruit, cheese, fish, meat and olive oil."
Sit up straight
Researchers told a group of students to work on their posture for the next two weeks. When the fortnight was up, the students performed much better in self-control tests: "By overriding their habit of slouching, the students strengthened their willpower and did better at tasks that had nothing to do with posture." It doesn't have to be sitting up -- any change in habits will help.
Precommit
It's easy to give up smoking after your 50th ciggie of the day, but after a couple of days fag-free, the situation is different. Use mental tricks to stay strong. First, precommitment: if you lock yourself into a path, it will be harder to leave it.
Make this precommitment public -- on Twitter, say. Be neat. If you're going to the gym, create an order in which you pack your bag and stick to it.
Get support
A study in 2008 by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler found that kicking the habit seemed to be contagious. If a member of a married couple quit smoking, the odds of the other quitting would increase sharply. The odds also got better if a brother, sister or friend quit. Even coworkers had a substantial effect, as long as the people worked together in a fairly small team.
Never diet
High self-control doesn't make a difference when it comes to diet. "Whether or not you have good self-control, whether or not you exercise, if you go on a diet, the odds are that you won't permanently lose weight." One reason is biology. "The body might send you pain signals when you exercise too strenuously, but it doesn't treat jogging as an existential threat." Dieting is different.
Pick your battles
Try to use calm periods to plot your offensives. Stopping smoking, taking up exercise or cutting back on drinking "are all best done in times of relatively low demand, when you can allocate much of your willpower to the task. You can then pick your battles -- and figure out which ones are too much trouble." And get enough sleep. "A rested will is a stronger will."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
