In a recent ASME article caught my attention. It was titled “Mastering More Willpower” by Jean Thilmany. Her premise for the article was “By strengthening your willpower you’ll get more done and more satisfaction in work and life.” Collaborating with Roy Baumeisster, professor of psychology at Florida State University and the University of Queensland in Australia, they co-authored a book in 2011 titled “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.
They define “willpower” or “self-control” as the energy to resist temptation by being able to see beyond momentary desires, such as staying up to finish watching a movie even though you have very important things to do the next day (I all too often succumb to that temptation), and to incorporate a long-term perspective into the short term. What they discovered in their research was that instead of trying to display large amounts of willpower throughout the day, that they just needed to control distractions. They found that on average people spend about 4 hours a day resisting temptations.
They outlined 5 tips to help reduce troublesome temptations (I’ll let you read the article for details):
1) Sleep Enough, Eat Right
2) Make It a Habit
3) The Right Surroundings
4) Plan to Plan
5) Look at the Long Term
None of these tips is earth shaking or unfamiliar to us. The key is practicing them daily, making good short term decisions to achieve long term goals. – Dr. Tom
