Then, I read Switch
I didn't connect the two thoughts until today when my colleague, Terry Harris, shared this post with me -- The Neuroscience of Success. Maybe it's not about your willingness to tolerate discomfort -- it's about willpower.
The better you are able to resist your own natural impulses, the more effectively you can focus your energy on the task at hand. I experienced this on Sunday when I did my first triathlon. (It was just a sprint distance, but I was pushing myself well outside my comfort zone.) As I swam and biked and ran, I felt like my body was just doing what my mind had predetermined. I guess that was willpower.
The good news is that you can develop your willpower. A study suggests that brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand for two weeks will increase your stick-to-it-tiveness in other areas. The author of the post I shared, Jason Gots, also suggests a few things that you can do to conserve your willpower which is crucial when you think about willpower as an exhaustible resource. Especially during a period of time that you're trying to make a change. He suggests organizing your work day so that tasks requiring more effortful self-control are interspersed with ones that require less, taking breaks after willpower-intensive activities, and avoiding draining your willpower before important activities. Maybe some minor adjustments to your work day will help you conserve enough willpower to make it through your evening workout or resist a dinner of red wine and chocolate ice cream.
Update: 11/27/2011
Just saw this article in the New York Times Willpower: It’s in Your Head -- "When people believe that willpower is fixed and limited, their willpower is easily depleted. But when people believe that willpower is self-renewing — that when you work hard, you’re energized to work more; that when you’ve resisted one temptation, you can better resist the next one — then people successfully exert more willpower."
1 comment:
Hi Janet,
It's so nice to see these ideas being spread around and put to use. Great post!
--Jason @BigThink
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