Self-control is limited

Self-control is critical to developing new habits and overcome resistance.

But by pushing ourselves too hard, we exhaust the mental muscles needed to stay focused, to avoid temptations, and to persist in the face of frustration or failure. 

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The Ten Percent Advantage: How to Make Progress Every Day

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The Ten Percent Advantage: How to Make Progress Every Day

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  • Improving Self-Control

    Avoid temptation.   Plan ahead.  If you are faced with temptation, what actions will you take to avoid giving in?  Practice using self-control.  Think of self-control as a muscle. While hard work may exhaust the muscle in the short-term, the muscle will grow stronger over time as you continue to work it. Try focusing on one goal at a time . Once you turn the behaviors needed to reach a goal into habits, you will not need to devote as much effort toward maintaining them. 

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    Know your weaknesses. You can’t overcome them until you know them. Remove temptations.  “Out of sight, out of mind.” Set clear goals and have an execution plan. Build your self-discipline.  We aren’t born with self-discipline -- it’s a learned behavior. Create new habits by keeping it simple.  Break your goal into small, doable steps. Eat often and healthy. Low blood sugar often weakens a person’s resolve, making you grumpy and pessimistic. Give yourself a backup plan. Give yourself a plan to deal with a potentially difficult situation you know you will likely face. Reward yourself when you accomplish your goals. Forgive yourself when you fall short and keep moving forward.

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    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 fluctuating resource such as physical energy.

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    It’s like any decision. And to improve the decision, we need to improve the environment , and give people the skills needed to avoid temptations in the first place.

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