Figuring out the “how to”

How many temptations do you think you resist every day?

It’s impossible to know because most of our decisions are unconscious. By becoming more attuned to when, where, and how we exercise self-control, we can start to manage our behavior a little better.

For example, have you ever gone to the supermarket when you’re really hungry? If so, chances are you made a few more impulse buys than you would have if you’d gone on a full stomach. There are many benefits of self-awareness.

Being aware of what we do, when we’re doing it, is the first step to making better decisions and resisting those that don’t help us over the long-term.

As a start, we can try to recognize and avoid temptation – either by steering clear of it or distracting ourselves from it (Metcalfe & Mischel, 1999).

As Dweck and colleagues illustrated, the beliefs that we hold about willpower can affect our ability to practice self-control (Job et al., 2010).

By viewing self-discipline as an unlimited resource, the participants in their experiment were able to exercise the same degree of willpower after a ‘depleting’ task as before it, demonstrating the impact our beliefs can have on our actions.

In another study, as hypothesized, a nonlimited theory predicted better self-regulation (better time management and less procrastination, unhealthy eating, and impulsive spending) for students who faced high self-regulatory demands. Moreover, among students taking a heavy course load, those with a nonlimited theory earned higher grades, which was mediated by less procrastination. (Job et. Al., 2015).

It suggests that you and I can do the same. That choosing not to view self-control as a depletable resource might give us some of the motivation we need to overcome – at least mild cases of – ego depletion (Vohs et al., 2012).

You can also enhance your capacity for self-control by merely practicing it. In a 2006 study, Oaten and Cheng demonstrated that students who engaged in a 2-month exercise program showed significantly enhanced self-regulation behaviors. Through regular physical exercise – which in itself involved repeated acts of willpower – participants outperformed the non-exercise group on self-regulatory visual tracking tasks.

They also reported positive increases and improvements in other domains related to self-discipline: emotional control, spending, study habits, attendance to commitments, healthy eating, and household chores. At the same time, they reported significant reductions in perceived stress and unhealthy habits, such as smoking and caffeine consumption (Oaten & Cheng, 2006).

Practicing the implementation intention technique can help you improve your self-control, work toward breaking bad habits, and change unwanted behavior (Gollwitzer, 1999). The method involves creating an “if-then” plan that specifies when, where, and how you’ll act to achieve a goal.

Implementation intention has been shown to increase the likelihood of goal achievement by helping us bridge the gap between our goal intentions and our behaviors (Gollwitzer & Brandstaetter, 1997). By identifying and committing to concrete goals, then specifying the precise goal-directed behaviors we’ll engage in, we help to make this behavior more automatic when the time comes around.

In the next section, we’ve given you an introduction to an Intention Implementation exercise.