Self-control is not a quality that remains stable throughout a person’s life, similar to IQ or personality. 

A person’s level of self-control tends to wax and to wane over the course of the day. Self-control is less like a mental capacity such as intelligence and more like a flu...

• Factors such as negative mood, fatigue and alcohol play a large part in self-control failure.
• Previous effort is one especially well studied factor that decreases self-control. All else being equal, a second self-control attempt after an initial one is more like...

• Self-control is indeed a resource, but a renewable, psychological one.
• Goals that are motivated from within—for reasons that are personally important to us—are more likely to succeed than those that are motivated from without.
• Succeeding at self-contro...