The Power of Willpower

Willpower has returned!  Thanks to the research of Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney and the publication of their recent book, Willpower:  Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, willpower is shaking its reputation as a character flaw and being studied as a strength to be developed. 
The transition from studying why people lack willpower to studying how willpower can be developed is yet another contribution from the field of Positive Psychology. This shift is not unlike the shift that grounded the field – from studying why depressed people are depressed to studying how people experience happiness and mental well-being in their lives.  It is also an excellent example how the perspective brought to a subject or experience changes the subject or experience.  Where you put your focus is where you get your result.

Baumeister and Tierney show how willpower is correlated to achieving goals, how motivation is tied to willpower, and how success in general is associated with being motivated to sustain your willpower to achieve your goals.  So how do you build willpower?  Take steps to keep yourself motivated PRIOR to depleting your power to stay motivated.  This tactic is similar to the evidence on how to become more resilient.  Build steps into your goal that do nothing but build and support your ability to stay motivated. 

Example Goal:  A real estate agent wants to sign five new listings.  The task requires lots of cold calling, attending meetings, making untold contacts.  Those tasks take a lot of physical and mental energy to complete. 
Tactic to build and strengthen ability to stay motivated:  20 minutes of meditation once or twice a day. 

The tactic may appear counter intuitive, yet the evidence is overwhelming.  At a minimum, some form of meditation break would stop the negative thoughts that may have crept in during a day of calls, meeting and greeting without a specific result for your efforts.  Stopping to calm your thoughts would actually feed your ability to stay motivated to keep doing the things you need to eventually reach your goal.

The real goal is avoiding what Baumeister and Tierney define as ‘ego-depletion’ which includes self-control.  The more decisions you make in a day, the greater the chance you will deplete your ability to maintain self-control (it is why you can feel tired after a networking event – you kept ‘deciding’ who to approach, who not to approach, who to avoid, who not to avoid – and why you may drink too much during or after the event!).

Ego-depletion in a business social setting for an introvert may look like withdrawal and lack of energy to engage new contacts.  Ego-depletion in an extrovert in the same situation may look like over-talking, too aggressive and lacking social filters (that might be the case for both introverts and extroverts.

Bottom line:  Build and nurture your willpower throughout the day to perform at your highest levels and increase your likelihood of achieving your goals.
 
Thank you, Andrea T. Goeglein, PhD
https://www.facebook.com/DrSuccessPhD
http://www.linedin.com/in/drsuccessphd
DrSuccess@ServingSuccess.com

Not sure this link is still active, but worth checking out.  You will get a recording of an interview with Roy Baumeister by Ben Dean of Mentor Coach.  http://www.mentorcoach.com/baumeister/ 

 

Soft Fascination and Leomonade

The following blog post was written by author, researcher, teacher and Positive Psychologist, Dr. Robert Biswar-Diener.  Robert has a new book out this week: The Courage Quotient and Robert is one of two resources I recommend for his Positive Psychology Coaching Course.  His April class is full, but he has another scheduled for June 4. I have italicized the section I found most interesting.

Soft Fascination and Lemonade

Anyone who has ever had to proofread, write a bibliography or refrain from snacking in the afternoon knows that these activities can be mentally exhausting. In fact, psychologist Roy Baumeister and his colleagues found that these types of tasks-- those that involve effortful attention-- deplete glucose in the brain. When the researchers gave fatigued study participants a glass of sugary lemonade they suddenly became better at these activities, as opposed to those who were given a glass of lemonade made with an artificial sweetener, who received no benefit.

A new article published earlier this year makes a strong case that attention is a psychological resource that can help us be at our best, but which we can "use up" like logs in a fire. Apart from having some lemonade the authors suggest several ways that we can restore our attentional powers. One is to sleep. Another is to meditate. The third possibility is even more intriguing: The authors divide our attention into two parts, involuntary attention (the natural tracking we engage in that doesn't require any conscious effort) and voluntary attention (the effortful looking at and figuring out of the world around us). An urban environment, the authors say, tends to deplete us because it draws on both our involuntary attention (noticing background information such as buildings) and our voluntary attention (keeping an eye out for traffic). They call this "hard fascination" and it tends to be exhausting. The alternative is "soft fascination" and this is exactly what happens when people experience natural vistas. If you spend time at the beach or walking through the forest your involuntary, but not voluntary attention is engaged, giving the latter time to rest and restore. So getting out into nature can provide a resource boost.

Next time you have a big day with lots of demanding work consider taking a break to go to the city park or similar pleasant greenspace and see how it affects your mental resources. If you just don't have time to get outside I suppose you can always turn to that glass of lemonade!  

Thank you, Robert, for a great post.  Andrea T. Goeglein www.ServingSuccess.com
Here are the links again to order Robert's new book and to his site for outstanding learning opportunities:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Courage-Quotient-Robert-Biswas-Diener/dp/0470917423/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334326756&sr=8-1

www.positiveacorn.com