A deep well of willpower is an awesome resource but relying on it as a first responder is inefficient and even exhausting. Willpower should be a tool of last resort, utilized best when all else has failed. It is much smarter to use self-discipline to intervene far earlier in the causal chain. How? By choosing supportive environments, cultivating constructive habits, spending time with people who reinforce our aspirations, avoiding situations where we are likely to regress, removing temptations from our surroundings, establishing routines and commitments that call out to our best selves, and designing systems that make the right thing easier and the wrong thing harder i.e. Re-building the systems that surround us and either support us or hold us back.
It is important to distinguish self-discipline from willpower. Willpower is narrower, tactical, in the moment, and involves the immediate use of emotional effort. It is the ability to resist a specific impulse, override a temptation, or persist in the face of intense resistance. Self-discipline is broader, strategic, the capacity to consistently direct our thoughts and behavior toward our long-term goals and values and to seek and create the conditions most likely to align with our purpose and principles.
Willpower is an emergency brake to be used in the moment of crisis. Self-discipline is the proper design of the road, the proactive maintenance of the automobile, and the wise choice of route. If you are challenged to get your behavior in line with your goals, consider examining your environment, your cohort, your thoughts: these are the systems of your life and it is crucial that they support you, daily call out to your best self, inspire you to be your highest self every day of your life.
The farther upstream you intervene, the easier it will be.
Closing Quotes:
“Of all the ways you can change your behavior, willpower is the absolute worst.” – Angela Duckworth, ‘Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance’ and ‘Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best’
“Disciplined people are better at structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self-control. It’s easier to practice self-restraint when you don’t have to use it very often.” – James Clear, ‘Atomic Habits’
“As important as it is to exercise your willpower and build it up, the most desirable environment is one in which you rarely even need to rely on willpower at all—your desired action or outcome simply occurs because that is one of the only choices.” – Peter Hollins
“The people with the highest self-control are actually the ones who use willpower the least. Instead of relying on willpower to get through the day, they establish habits and routines that automate good choices.” – John Tierney and Roy Baumeister, ‘Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength’
“We found that people who score high on self-control scales don’t actually exert more willpower day-to-day. Instead, they use their control to structure their lives and environments to avoid temptations in the first place.” – Dr. Wendy Wood, ‘Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick’
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier
Note: Every effort has been made to properly source any 3rd person material. I am, however, a voracious reader. If anyone finds any unattributed material, pls let me know asap and I will be delighted to give credit where credit is due.
“All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832
