Willpower is a Muscle

Everyone knows the feeling of coming home from a long day and crashing on the couch. Maybe crashing on the couch is accompanied by cracking open a soda and a bag of chips—something comforting and easy. The question is why after a long day, do we resort to what is easiest? The answer is a depletion in our willpower. Willpower does not live in the black-and-white world of the have and the have-not. It is much more complex than that. Willpower is less a skill and more a muscle; a muscle that gets tired as it is used. If we only use willpower, we will find ourselves resorting back to habitual actions that are easy and do not take discipline.

Willpower is a muscle that can be trained but ultimately still gets tired and worn out. Given the analogy to a muscle, this also means willpower can be recharged and reset. Typically, a recharge can occur after a break and a reset can happen on a new day. This is also why we see some of the most productive periods when we work highly focused for a shorter period, take a break, and then repeat the cycle.

Since willpower is a “muscle,” there will be times when it fails completely. In the gym, we cannot only lift our arms and expect to have a balanced body. We need to do chest, shoulders, legs, back, and all the other muscle groups to achieve holistic balance. The same goes with willpower, if we are only relying on willpower we will fail to accomplish what we want. We need to develop discipline, establish habits that we stick to, and make it easier for other parts of our lives to be there for us when our willpower is not. If we find ourselves in patterns of eating junk food after long days at work, remove the chips from the pantry. Changes in our environment like this can help willpower not be the only check keeping us in balance.

To get the best use out of willpower it is a good practice to do the important tasks in the morning, when we are fully recharged. Waiting until the end of a work day, after school, or after practice to do what we tell ourselves we want to do, oftentimes means we will not do them. In my own life, I know I need to run in the morning otherwise I run the risk of failing to achieve this task by the end of the day. The frequency at which we perform our individual tasks is important, and willpower is a determining factor. If you have a pursuit you find yourself not staying consistent at, consider if the time of day is the reason. By readjusting, we can make the most out of the willpower we have, while also growing our capacity to do more.