A choice matter

Willpower is key in helping us control our lives. Gabrielle Fagan gives a quick rundown of tips from a new book to get you going.

IT’S a common lament that our lack of willpower often leaves us unable to resist life’s temptations, many of us frequently fail and become further discouraged by our ‘weakness’.

But it may not be all our fault, says Roy F Baumeister, coauthor of Willpower: Why Self-Control Is The Secret To Success, who suggests a strategy to help us boost our resolve.

Diet: Research has highlighted the fact that low glucose levels can leave people less able to control their will. Mental energy is fuelled by glucose in the body’s blood stream, so to help maintain steady self-control he suggests eating foods with a lowglycaemic index.

Work-out: Try overriding a small but habitual bad habit, perhaps slouching when you sit at your desk, and set yourself a time-limit of a month to eradicate the habit. Small will-power boosting exercises act as a warm-up for tackling a bigger challenge.

Rest and refresh: The old advice that things will seem better in the morning holds true:

“Beware of making binding decisions when your energy is down because you’ll tend to favour short-term gains and delayed costs,” Plan your goals: Set aside a day for reflection each year, maybe your birthday, he suggests.

“Ask yourself whether you are where you want to be, what could be better and what you could do about it. Aim for a broad five-year plan along with specific, manageable goals.” Limit your target: Don’t make a list of goals — nobody has enough willpower to cover a huge list:

“Those goals will simply compete with one another and each time you try to follow one you reduce your capacity for all the others,” says Baumeister. Be realistic: Whenever you set a goal, beware the tendency to be over-optimistic:

“When was the last time you heard of a road or building being completed six months early? Late and over-budget is the norm,” he says.

Delay don’t deny: People who procrastinate continually can use it as a positive trait:

“Postponement strategy works better than trying to deny themselves altogether,” he says. “It can also work for other temptations from over-eating to watching television. And remember that exercising will-power brings joy as inner discipline leads to outer kindness. Those with stronger willpower are likely to help others.”

¦ Willpower: Why Self-Control Is The Secret To Success by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, published in paperback by Penguin, €14.30.