How Ego Depletion Can Sabotage Your Willpower - Deepstash
How Ego Depletion Can Sabotage Your Willpower

How Ego Depletion Can Sabotage Your Willpower

Curated from: verywellmind.com

Ideas, facts & insights covering these topics:

8 ideas

·

14.3K reads

27

1

Explore the World's Best Ideas

Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.

Ego Depletion

Ego Depletion

Ego depletion happens when people use up their available willpower on one task.

We all have natural urges, desires, and tendencies that demand attention. When we curb those urges, it requires willpower. Even small decisions to delay gratification require huge mental, emotional, and cognitive effort. As willpower is a limited resource, when it is used up, we experience mental exhaustion and fatigue.

515

2.39K reads

Self Control

People having a high level of self-control experience better relationships and have higher achievement levels. Lack of self-control is associated with social conflict and low-grade academic performance.

Example: While following a diet regime, a person spends a lot of willpower the whole day trying to avoid junk food, but by the end of the day, all his mental energy has been exhausted, and there is no self-control left, resulting in snacking on unhealthy food.

479

1.88K reads

Causes of Ego Depletion

Many emotional and physical factors contribute to ego depletion, like:

  • Emotional distress
  • Struggling to learn something new
  • Mental fatigue due to anxiety
  • Low levels of blood sugar
  • Too much choice
  • Conflicting beliefs and actions (cognitive dissonance)
  • Heart Rate
  • Hormonal imbalance
  • Being young and immature.

526

1.89K reads

Dieting and social behaviors

  • Chronic dieters seem to be more prone to ego depletion as they apply their limited willpower on controlling their food intake, therefore being more likely to lose their self-control when temptation strikes.
  • Ego depletion makes people feel less guilty, making them less likely to be empathetic or helpful towards others.

388

1.47K reads

Decision Making

The huge amount of choices that a consumer makes while shopping can lead to ego depletion, as they become mentally exhausted and overwhelmed.

This leads to the consumer picking something without much thought, like just the lower-priced one, or a familiar brand.

422

1.83K reads

Mental Performance

.. requires mental toughness and determination. When willpower is exhausted due to challenging mental tasks, it leads to physical exhaustion.

Example: Students having a tough exam before a game might perform poorly in the activity.

399

1.58K reads

Addictions

Depletion of self-control can make people impulsively consume addictive drugs like alcohol or tobacco.

If all the willpower is exhausted in other tasks, the person is more likely to give in to the temptation.

424

1.42K reads

Prevention of Ego Depletion

Prevention of Ego Depletion

  • Take steps to boost your mood.
  • Change your outlook and focus on the big picture.
  • Use positive self-affirmation to counter the effects of ego depletion.
  • Make sure you get proper sleep.
  • Practice deep breathing and mindfulness meditation.

537

1.83K reads

IDEAS CURATED BY

keving

deepstash fan

Kevin Graham's ideas are part of this journey:

7 Books on Habits

Learn more about personaldevelopment with this collection

How to break bad habits

How habits are formed

The importance of consistency

Related collections

Similar ideas

How to Improve Your Self-Control

4 ideas

The Psychology of Willpower

11 ideas

The Psychology of Willpower

positivepsychology.com

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Personalized microlearning

100+ Learning Journeys

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates