When willpower fades, your “why” empowers you to persist
DID YOU KNOW?
Why This Works
Resisting temptation is often viewed as an exercise in willpower. Exerting willpower is hard, though. What if success depends less on mental strength and more on motivation? Might changing how we think in the face of temptation enhance self-control? Research suggests that one way to do this is to recall the reasons, or "why," behind a goal. Thinking about your why not only enhances self-control, but may do so with less effort than willpower.
What You Can Do
Find your why
Think about a goal you're working toward. Why does it matter to you? How does it connect to your values or the person you want to be?
What You Can Do
Prepare for Temptation
Identify situations where you might struggle to follow through. Before they happen, remind yourself why your goal matters.
What You Can Do
Make a plan
Try telling yourself: “When I face temptation, I'll remind myself why this goal is important.” See whether that changes how you respond.
The Science Behind It
Why Willpower Is Difficult
Although there is no consensus on exactly what willpower is, scientists typically use the term to refer to mental efforts to block or suppress temptation impulses. This is hard and is easily prone to disruption by factors such as distraction, stress, and multi-tasking. As such, it is important to explore alternative tactics to fighting temptation.
Why We Lose Sight of Our Goals
One might be to change how we think when faced with temptation. One notable feature of self-control is that it is always easy to prioritize the over-riding goal when temptations are far away, but much more difficult to do so when the temptation is right there. This is in part because as events become closer to us, we shift from thinking about why we do things to how we do things. Although this shift in thinking can be adaptive, it makes it difficult to think about over-arching goals when faced with temptation. This makes it hard for us to feel the motivation we had for our goals when temptations were more distant. Purposefully reminding ourselves about our goals can help counteract this tendency and remind us what our priorities are.
What Does the Research Show?
Indeed, research suggests that when people are reminded about why versus how they pursue their goals, they are more likely to resist temptations and make decisions in line with their goals (e.g., Fujita et al., 2006; Fujita & Han, 2009). For example, female undergraduates who frequently report being concerned about gaining weight were more likely to choose an apple over a candy bar as a snack. Moreover, there is some evidence that self-control may even become easier when people are thinking about their why. For example, they generally evidence weaker temptation impulses (e.g., Fujita & Han, 2008) and less decision conflict (Stillman et al., 2017). With their why clearly in mind, people do not appear to struggle to stick to their goals in the face of temptation.
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