https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-willpower-is-overrated-2029766008
I don't know if I agree with all of this, but a very interesting finding was from the 70's study, "The marshmellow test" shows disparities in incomes at an early age lead to vast disparities later in life.
I mean I’ve definitely changed my life by employing willpower. I used to be terrible at getting things done, but I’ve taught my self willpower.
That being said I definitely agree with the article on some points. For example, how I learned self control was to learn how to enjoy things like exercise so it doesn’t feel like a chore.
The routine thing definitely helps too, but I’d argue that is self control where as the article says otherwise?
I also agree that more temptations definitely make it harder. For example when I lived alone, I was really good about eating healthy all the time. I was pretty disciplined.
Being at home right now, my dad makes delicious food, but really has terrible eating habits. Although I’ve managed to keep it up, I have definitely slowed my progress because he’s always buying cookies and shit. I almost think he does it on purpose because he knows that his health is bad and wants others to suffer, it’s toxic for self control.
Tl;dr: if you want to achieve something through committing to a task, you have to find a way to enjoy the task, or else you will most likely abandon it.
Those color tests have never been able to really trip me up. Like I did the one in the article and could list each color accurately without pause. The article is interesting but kinda spins itself off. It actually spends a lot of time instead talking about self-control and then goes on to talk a lot about temptations. By the end it's not really about how willpower is overrated but instead how willpower is misunderstood.
Thing is, did you actually just employ willpower to get those things done, or rather did you adopt better habits to getting things done, like setting time aside specifically to do those things, or keeping a more active watch on them?
tbf setting and sticking to new habits takes a lot of willpower too
Don't kid yourself. Motivation fades, discipline stays. You will find happiness in not only being successful, but being GOOD and feeling like you're competent at something.
Mike Rowe shares some wonderful anecdotes during his TED talk
Misery loves company and other people are like crabs in a barrel. After a year or two of hitting the gym my obese father would continuously comment that I'm thin as a pole and other shit. Really makes you think about other's mentalities.
“Mischel has consistently found that the crucial factor in delaying
gratification is the ability to change your perception of the object or
action you want to resist,” the New Yorker reported
in 2014. That means kids who avoided eating the first marshmallow would
find ways not to look at the candy, or imagine it as something else.
Yep. I've been able to burn calories non-stop because I started seeing the burn at the gym as a way to feel your own body in whole. If you can get past all the bad shit you won't even notice it.
I would argue that it took a lot of damn willpower to build those habits in the first place. Also, there are definitely times when I consciously think about how I'm procrastinating instead of doing my work. I think to myself "BOY! You're procrastinating and if you don't get up now and start your shit you'll never start." Then willpower push myself out of procrastination mode and force myself to sit down.
I'm not saying I'm a master of willpower, in fact I'm quite shit and still learning. But to say little element of willpower in productivity seems wrong.
I'm not trying to downplay your achievements, I'm glad you've been able to get your act together and start being diligent, it's just the article itself states that willpower doesn't really have a correlation with life success itself, and it's more likely because you set good habits worked towards what you've done than simply just having more will-power than someone else. Which is important because our focus on "DETERMINATION SOLVES EVERYTHING" doesn't actually work, it's more having the determination to work towards bettering yourself that does.
I think I’m just confused at what the difference is, because I see building those habits as willpower? I’m not even necessarily disagreeing with the article, just sort of confused because it seems that what most motivational do is tell you to build good habits.
The real Crux of the article doesn't seem to be, "Willpower doesn't help/isn't important." But more seems to be, "We aren't very good at testing for it or defining it."
tbh, Willpower is grossly underrated.
Its like exchanging few low quality orgasms for Nut of the century
What a cop-out mentality to have, that conveniently lets you place the blame at someone else's or """"""""""""""""societies""""""""""""" feet rather than your own. You're supposed to feel some sort of bad feeling when your willpower fails you, that's how you learn and build more willpower, or at least how I have as more or less a professional failure. It's a mental muscle you have to bruise to make it stronger and you're not supposed to have some great amount right off the bat. You have to work on it little by little to improve it, it's incredibly simple. This is the way humans work down to the literal bone.
Pushing it off as "Well them's the genetics" or "Well society just puts TOO MANY COOKIES ON THE SHELF" or "Well the deck is stacked against me!" is a mind mindbogglingly unhelpful attitude to try to legitimize or to tackle health or lifestyle problems with. And lastly, if whoever wrote this article doesn't how you use your willpower to build healthy habits in point two of the article, no wonder they bought into this textual diarrhea.
I was an academic failure when I was in school, and lived a very unhealthy life, I was and still sort of am, a fat fuck. None of this was anyone's fault but my own. It wasn't society or my environment or upbringing popping the top off of a soda and force feeding it to me, it was just me being a fat fuck. It wasn't my genetics making me stay up til 4 AM playing video games and beating my dick til it was sore and my poor cumsock was a solid sheet of dried protein, it was me also being a lazy degenerate fuck in addition to being a fat fuck. I tried for a long time to fix these little by little. First in baby steps by applying my meager willpower, reaching the breaking point, realizing what I, as in me, myself did wrong to 100% cause that failure myself, and decided I would work to stop doing that. Repeat for a few years. Dropped ~40 lbs, switched from eating garbage expensive fast food every day to eating cheap and healthy food for the most part, and stopped waking up at noon to play videogames all day to waking up early and running a few miles in the morning and doing bodyweight workouts in the evening.
The best part of those changes isn't the improvement in quality of life, it's knowing that is was all ME, 100% a result of my own actions, just like my failures were. It wasn't the great helping hand of society doing the work for me or trying to coddle me telling me my failure was OK because X reasons so I shouldn't feel bad, it was me getting up and putting in the work, starting with cutting calories or going on a short jog once or twice a week, or watching videos meant for 5th graders so I could relearn math that I had forgot a decade or more ago. I'm in an infinitely better place than I was a couple years ago and it's all because I decided to apply my meager willpower to some small tasks so I could work it into a deeper reserve of willpower for future, bigger tasks. You can strengthen your mind and endurance, it has been acknowledged since Socrates was walking around. It's simple, but it isn't easy, nor should it necessarily be.
i've managed to accomplish a lot of things through sheer force of will even if i doubt myself the entire time
Willpower isn't overrated, it's the only way you can get a stand
The article isn't saying that willpower is useless, simply that we value it far too much. Willpower alone will not get you through tough times, it will not cause you to lose weight, and it will not change your lifestyle. Rather it's a good source in order to get into those kinds of good habits that allow you to have a better life. I don't doubt for a second your willpower helped you gain the life you wanted, but it wasn't the only thing that got you there, but rather your setting of good habits that did so. Willpower has a role in that, but is not necessarily the deciding factor.
Of course it won't get you through tough times by itself.
Anyone who thought you could sit down and will yourself to mental/physical health is kidding themselves.
this is all part of Vox's long-standing plan to undermine the authority of the Green Lantern Corp
Of course people are more likely to get things done if they enjoy it. It should be obvious why there are few great people; it requires willpower that others can't muster.
I've had a much better life thus far when I've completely avoided any hedonistic tenancies and limiting any sort of extraneous distractions. I've gotten over addiction with this mentality.
Well you'd be surprised then how common that belief is. That's what the article is trying to dispel.
I just don't think we value it in the way the article says. There is no motivational speaker who will tell you to just will yourself better. They'll tell you to use your willpower to set up your life in ways to be successful ie. habits, scheduling, organizing your room, etc... So I just don't really understand the point of this article, it feels like its just trying to justify being helpless. I know when I was looking for excuses for why my life was bad, this is exactly the sort of article that would confirm my shitty mindset. "It's the world, not me"
Of course there are people who have a harder time because of their environment. I don't think anybody has said otherwise. There's a reason we as a society value rags to riches, rather than somebody born into privileged positions becoming successful. Not that we should deny the hard work those people put into their lives as well.
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