How to Achieve Your Goals by Harnessing Willpower

Learn what willpower means, the benefits of it, and how to harness it to achieve your goals.

Willpower is a marker for self-control; a true test of self-determination that requires significant effort to continue moving forward in the direction of a goal, even in the face of temptation (American Psychological Association [APA], 2023; Baumeister & Tierney, 2012). This means delaying gratification until the goal is achieved. Delayed gratification has been studied by many researchers to show that we can choose behaviors that resist immediate gratification for a future outcome (Mischel et al., 1989).

Exercising willpower also means navigating against internal and external barriers such as thoughts, feelings, urges, impulses, and environmental factors. Willpower is like a motor, driving us to persist in tasks even when it's hard. And like a motor, it needs fuel and maintenance to operate (we’ll explain this more in later sections).

Engaging in willpower has been shown to increase academic performance, self-esteem, and quality of life by making healthier lifestyle choices (APA, 2023; Baumeister & Vohs, 2018). Willpower can also lead to increased productivity (Bucciol et al., 2009) such as resisting the urge to watch TikTok when studying for school finals.

Exercises

Finding opportunities that allow you to practice self-control can exercise willpower. Strategies such as engaging in mindfulness or meditation can be helpful (Audiffren & Baumeister, 2022). This means refocusing your attention on the present moment, using breathing as one anchor to ground you, and being open to your current experience with a non-judgmental attitude. This strategy can come in handy when faced with a glaring temptation.

Setting specific and realistic goals that can be broken down into steps can also help you exercise willpower effectively. Want to go back to school? Want to make more friends? Want to get a new job? These are all great and potentially realistic goals that do not happen overnight. Each goal takes time to achieve with a step-by-step plan and willpower to push you forward.

Is Willpower Finite?

Mental energy is being expelled when you use willpower and theories on "willpower depletion" have been researched to explain this process. For example, studies have shown that participants who engaged in self-control in one task (e.g., refraining from eating a sweet treat) had a harder time exerting the same level of self-control or willpower on the 2nd task (e.g., giving up when solving a challenging puzzle; Baumeister et al., 1998).

Our brain works effectively with the help of glucose (e.g., blood sugar) also known as our body's energy source or fuel. Engaging in activities that require the use of willpower has been shown to lower glucose levels (Gailliot & Baumeister, 2007) suggesting that willpower could be a finite resource that can be replenished.

However, other researchers have suggested that willpower can never be fully exhausted and can be restored or seen as an unlimited resource. For instance, willpower can ebb and flow similarly to emotions, and like emotions, willpower can never run out (Inzlicht et al., 2014).

Some researchers have found that our attitudes, beliefs, and mood can impact willpower. Individuals who were in a "good" mood, believed that willpower was not finite, and who were motivated to engage in willpower for their own goals (rather than to please others) were less likely to feel depleted (Job et al., 2010).

Willpower Strategies

We all have days where everything goes wrong that we could not have prevented or controlled. Even with our best intentions, we can struggle to do tasks that maybe we were able to do before. No one is perfect and the process of wellness is a continuous one that has many twists and turns. Having a mantra can be a quick and helpful tool in helping you develop a "growth" mindset, building your self-confidence, and activating your willpower, especially on those hard days.

Here are 3 steps in creating your mantra:

1. Remember the reason or value underlying the goal you have set. Why is it important to you?

2. List out what steps you have already taken and accomplished to get to the point you are at today. Remember to try and be encouraging to yourself as if you were reminding a friend about all the hard work they have done.

3. Think of one simple phrase or word that combines steps one and two.

To Sum It All Up

The key takeaways about willpower are:

● Willpower means persisting in a task and delaying gratification even when it is hard and there is temptation to do the opposite.

● We all have the ability to exercise willpower and strengthen it.

● Our beliefs, attitudes, and mood impact the effectiveness of willpower.

● Engaging in practices such as mindfulness or meditation, setting specific and realistic goals, and breaking down singular goals into smaller steps, can help exercise willpower and strengthen it over time.

● Remind yourself that no one is perfect, and willpower is just a tool that can be wielded to help you achieve your goals.

References

● American Psychological Association. (2023, March 21). What you need to know about willpower: The psychological science of self-control. https://www.apa.org/topics/personality/willpower

● Audiffren, M., André, N., & Baumeister, R. F. (2022). Training willpower: Reducing costs and valuing effort. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 16.

● Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., & Tice, D. M. (1998). Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 74(5), 1252.

● Baumeister, R. F., & Tierney, J. (2012). Willpower: Rediscovering the greatest human strength. Penguin.

● Baumeister R. F., & Vohs K. D. (2018). Revising our reappraisal of the (surprisingly few) benefits of high self-esteem. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13, 137–140.

● Bucciol, A., Houser, D., & Piovesan, M. (2009). Temptation at work: a field experiment on willpower and productivity (No. 1013).

● Gailliot, M. T., & Baumeister, R. F. (2007). The physiology of willpower: Linking blood glucose to self-control. Personality and social psychology review, 11(4), 303-327.

● Inzlicht, M., Schmeichel, B. J., & Macrae, C. N. (2014). Why self-control seems (but may not be) limited. Trends in cognitive sciences, 18(3), 127-133.

● Job, V., Dweck, C. S., & Walton, G. M. (2010). Ego depletion—Is it all in your head? Implicit theories about willpower affect self-regulation. Psychological science, 21(11), 1686-1693.

● Mischel, W., Shoda, Y., & Rodriguez, M. L. (1989). Delay of gratification in children. Science, 244(4907), 933-938