Willpower Theory
The theory of unlimited willpower has brought a new look to what we understand of willpower. For over three decades psychology has labored under the theory that our will power is limited. That is how it has seemed to work under the long standing theory. Your ego starts each day with a full tank of fuel. All day long we run about making one choice after another. Each choice uses up a little more of the fuel, commonly referred to as ego depletion. Our goal is to maximize our reserves for more important choices, so we use strategies like planed breaks and simplifying our decision making process to ensure we get the maximum value from the day’s reserves. Over time we can also build more tank space so we can get further too.
Under this theory, a day of heavy decisions makes writing that book or running that blog a seriously challenging choice when faced with the ease of pizza and a movie.
New Theory Unlimited Willpower
A study at Beijing Normal University, China has challenged that line of thought. The researchers found that we might have an infinite amount of willpower. The first step is to find out why we feel depleted after a lot of choices. That answer could give us a better understanding of how to access that infinite source.
Definition of Ego Depletion is Over Simplistic
What the study results tells us is that ego depletion theory needs a tweak. The researchers found that the weakened ego effect was not as strong as has been believed when they tried to replicate the original results with participants in four studies using a standard depletion procedure. In the test the participants completed a random depletion procedure then repeat the task a second time. No evidence of significant depletion effects were found in any of the studies. The null results indicate that depletion may have a much weaker effect than previous studies led us to believe.
Previous Studies
Previous studies have been centered on the participants’ self-control. The first part was to deplete the ego then measure the loss in the second round.
New Research Shows Unlimited Willpower
The newer research argues that the first task is the reason we shift from a need to control ourselves to a need to gratify a want. This is a change of our motivational mindset.
The new process model supports ego depletion but argues there is more going on that just the hypothesis of “Doing A takes all the energy you need to do B.” That explanation is too simplified. The possibility is that the ego has a larger stamina than previous research suggests. If that theory holds, then we come to the questions of how does will power work and what can we really control?
Retrain What We See
The thinking is that if willpower really works like a muscle, then the type of work nor our feelings, enjoy or hate it, does not matter. You should not be more tired from a grueling four hour gym workout than dancing all night long.
Cut Choice
Many people using the muscle based depletion argument have cut down their choices so that they can conserve their will power. Theoretically, the fewer choices they make daily creates less of a drain on our willpower reserves. Many people from Steve Jobs in his black turtlenecks to Mark Zuckerberg are famous for their limited wardrobes. Here’s a good argument in that line of thought. “An Argument For Wearing The Same Clothes Every Day”.
Minimizing your choices is a great argument and does seem to work, but some research says that even if you feel depleted after you finish a given task, your self-control will stay high if you re-frame the work as being fun.
Unlimited Willpower Turns Work to Fun
In 2011 Juliano Laran and Chris Janiszewski (Work or Fun? How Task Construal and Completion Influence Regulatory Behavior ) tested the minimalism theory. They gave participants the tedious task of choosing between similar products like two similar computers with just a few differences, like RAM or CPU speed. The real difference was how they framed the choice as fun or not. Those in the fun group had one additional sentence in the instructions: “The first study is a fun study involving hypothetical choices in several product categories.” This extra sentence made a difference that allowed the participants to persist longer than the second group in evaluating the products. Restoring Ego Depletion
Break Point
One’s attitude is the break point for whether you feel “depleted” or not. A belief that your willpower is unlimited seems to become a self-fulfilling prophesy based on the scientific evidence.
Willpower is an Emotion
I think it is worth the work to develop an unlimited willpower mindset. It starts with how you see your willpower. People who see their willpower as an emotion also find it easier to believe that they have unlimited willpower. They might be on the right track too since there is science based evidence to support their beliefs.
Belief and Science
Researchers have looked at how our beliefs affect our willpower. Those studies show that people who believe they have unlimited will power do seem to outperform their limited willpower believing counterparts.
Sugar Free
For the unlimited willpower believer a sugar rush is not even an option. In one study on Willpower Sugar and Self-control researchers tested the effects of sugar on self-control. Over three experiments people were given a sugary or a non-sugary drink when being tested. The limited willpower believers saw an improvement when given a sugary drink versus a non-sugary drink. The unlimited believers maintained a high level of self-control regardless of the drink they had.
Bounce Back Effect
A study out of the University of Zurich Katharina Bernecker shows that unlimited believers bounce back after a hard day with higher productivity goals, but their counterparts are still exhausted from the previous day’s work and are generally unproductive. The study also shows that the believers also follow up on those goals which results in making them far more effective than the limited theory-believers.
Sustained Learning
The believers continue to learn and improve in sustained work beyond where the limited theorists feel “depleted”. A Stanford study took participants through eight biased questionnaires to place them in one of the two belief sets. After modeling their beliefs the researchers gave each group a series of eight books to study over a period of time. For the first half of the test they results were similar, but the limited group lagged in the second half while the unlimited group continued to learn at the previous rate. The study showed that beliefs about willpower can be modified by input over the short term. What theory we believe can increase performance over a long and difficult task.
Unlimited Willpower Sees the Belief Change
Much of the reason for the difference is that when you believe you have unlimited resources your reactions and plan of attack changes. Procrastination is less and preparations are more efficient. With unlimited willpower the subject is apt to see problem solving as more as a motivational challenge/experience, not an exhausting one. Better preparation likely aids how smooth a project moves which also makes it easier to maintain positive momentum.
What Does Unlimited Willpower Mean for Writers?
Writers can take a few lessons from this. It’s clear that an unlimited willpower mindset can improve our productivity and that we can make that happen by reimagining our willpower as an emotion.
When we see our willpower as an emotion, we are far less likely to treat it as though it will deplete over time with use. No one would expect to see an emotion such as love reduced with more people coming into our lives such as when child is born. The added child does not decrease the love we have for other family members. No one is going to spend time being unhappy to save happiness for an event later that night. The trouble is that at the end of the day we can still feel drained even with an unlimited supply of will power.
So what makes us feel drained?
Michael Inzlicht at the University of Toronto thinks that the loss of control happens when there is a conflict between goals. Your emotions settle the matter of which one wins. It’s not that you cannot resist the temptation, which is a short term goal, of desert. The breakdown is because your goal of a beach body this summer is less emotionally compelling than the desert platter.
Projects We Like
It is possible to have unlimited willpower by spending more time on projects we like or put more focus on the aspects of the work we like to keep our motivation high. We could even walk away from those goals that hold no emotional motivation for us and feel good about it. There is no reason to run five miles a day when you are not really up for it.
In the Marines I found this to be totally true. I used to hate running, but it was not till I got running regularly with my unit that I ever felt an emotional connection to running. Once I had that connection, doing training runs on my own became far easier to do.
Perfect World
If everything were perfect, we could just fill our lives with things we find motivating. That’s a hard thing in a world where even our ideal work comes with unpleasant work aspects. As writers we all tend to like to write, but we might have problems with editing or research. Research in How do people adhere to goals when willpower is low? The profits (and pitfalls) of strong habits indicates that our habits are our way out in those times that willpower and emotional fortitude are low. Habits lock us in when we lack that emotional tie.
Habits
Creating a new habit to deal with such onerous tasks to take advantage of a regular emotional upswing in our day is a useful way to use autopilot in an advantageous way.
Putting Unlimited Willpower to Work
Researchers know that prioritizing our goals over impulses is key to winning the battle with temptation. What we do in our free time builds our motivation for later. Here are a few suggestions.
One of the things that helps us increase our willpower is how fit our bodies are. Physical exercise has shown clearly to improve mental function and willpower. A long term consistent program is the key for optimal benefits. This is likely because the habit of doing the workout even when you are tired or when the weather is not nice allows you to become more comfortable with discomfort and inconvenience. A sporadic workout has been shown to have both positive and negative effects on willpower, depends on factors like workout intensity. In both cases though moving the body and working out is a great tool for developing willpower.
Meditation and other mindfulness activities improve our willpower. In How Mindfulness Enhances Self-Control and How Mindfulness And Productivity Go Hand In Hand we find that there is a positive link between regular mindfulness and meditation practices and improved willpower. When we learn to observe our thoughts and emotions without judging them it becomes easier to see temptation when it strikes. Seeing temptation in the moment allows us to use our willpower and self-control to control it.
Subtle Reminders
You can use a subtle physical reminder to symbolically remind you of your infinite power. This can range from a poster over your desk to a medallion you use to meditate on. Eric Miller’s team found using subtle cues for unlimited willpower can create an access point to the unlimited mindset.
Conversations
You can also watch who you talk to as you develop your own unlimited mindset. Much of the research shows that creating too varied and conflicting cues in our thinking can have a negative effect on our ability to keep our motivation high. Avoiding conversations about feeling drained while we are working to shift our mental perspective can make it faster and easier to redefine our willpower expectations.
Consider
What is your inspiration to work on large goals? What attitude do you approach your day with? How do these affect your productivity? What do you think helps to rethink willpower?
Try out a great read Honesty- What does that have to do with writing?
Photo by Weston MacKinnon on Unsplash