“It is easier to act yourself into a new way of feeling rather than feel your way into a new way of acting.”

G. D. Morgan

“Nothing really worth having comes quickly and easily.  If it did, I doubt that we would ever grow.”

Eknath Easwaran

“Determination that just won’t quit — that’s what it takes.”

A. J. Foyt

“Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle.  It’s a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.”

Eric Butterworth

Low self control

We all have the ability to exert self-control to overcome our inclinations – to sleep, to eat chocolate, to watch TV, to veg out. Our self-control is vital to our success, our ability to maintain balance and composure, and ultimately our ability to attain our potential. Our desires and impulses can work against our goals and our ability to uphold maturity in our relationships. Those with chronic low self-control are at risk of overeating, addictions and underachievement – as well as failed relationships.

Self-control, like intelligence and conscientiousness, is a valuable psychological resource with widespread effects on our lives.

What does self-control depend on – scientifically?

What do we, as psychologists, know about self control and willpower scientifically, that we may improve it?

Self-control depends on effort or willpower and many studies have shown that willpower a limited resource – easily drained – like muscle power. Exercising self-control, like exercising a muscle, results in less self-control subsequently, in situations that are unrelated. Resisting the temptation to eat a chocolate bar can reduce your resistance to the temptation of watching TV rather than doing something you ought to be doing just moments later. Self-control is like battery power, and if the battery is not recharged – e.g. after a few hours rest or a good night’s sleep – there’s only so much self-control we exert until we’re drained.  This has been called ego depletion.

Self-control and working memory

How can we increase our store of will-power? How can we improve our self-control, and be less likely to give up and veg out?

A recent post in PsyBlog summarizes ten scientifically based self-control/will power strategies. We will return to these in our next blog. For now we will focus on some recent research by Siegfried Dewitte and his colleagues at K.U. Leuven university that shows us how we can mindhack our own willpower system and increase its energy store.

Dewitte and colleagues have given the world yet more operational knowledge about our core cognitive systems by showing experimentally that self-control relies on working memory capacity, and that ego depletion is actually due to working memory depletion. Their article can be downloaded here.

“Working memory is those mechanisms and processes that are involved in the control,  regulation, and active maintenance of  task-relevant information in the service of complex  cognition, including novel as well as familiar skilled tasks.” (Miyake and Shah)

Working memory capacity is how much – the bandwidth – of the task-relevant information you can hold in mind to attain your goals – whether to solve a problem, learn a new skill, keep level headed in a dispute, read an article or complete a project.

Dewitte and colleagues showed that

• working memory use causes self-control  deficits and vice versa

This shows that:

•  self-control and working memory tap the same resource pool

The relevance of working memory to willpower and self-control lies in the ‘active maintenance of task-relevant information’ in the definition above. ‘Task relevant information’ implies a goal, and sticking to goals lies behind the self-control effort.  Sticking to goals, when there are distractions and automatic responses that need to be suppressed, is HARD – it takes will power. It is tiring, and can drain the tank.

By implication, if we strengthen our working memory,  increasing its capacity and efficiency, we can increase our will-power, adding a measure to the common cognitive resource they share.

HighIQPro ’s dual n-back working memory exercise (shown above) improves working memory capacity or ‘bandwidth’ substantially – by 60% or more in laboratory tests.

This will translate into greater reserves for self-control, and more capacity to ‘dig deep’ in pursuit of your goals.

For more great willpower quotes click here.