Exercising Willpower Strengthens It

Wow. Apparently you can exercise your willpower, just like a muscle, and strengthen it over time. The New York Times has an article on willpower that says two interesting things.

The article is called Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Wallet. The authors are Sandra Aamodt, the editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience, and Sam Wang, an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton. Together they have also written a book called “Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life.”

The first point they make is that apparently you use up blood sugar when you use willpower. By choosing not to eat that donut, you actually use up some of your blood sugar. Their experiment showed that exerting willpower repeatedly became harder over a short period of time. Your body begins to deplete the available blood sugar and it becomes harder to maintain your willpower.

The second point is that your brain appears to become more efficient at using blood sugar while exercising willpower. While in the short term, willpower gets harder, over extended periods of time using willpower you are more able to continue exerting willpower. Practicing exerting willpower makes it easier to exert willpower. Just like exercising a muscle.

The article suggests that this is why it is initially hard to diet and save money at the same time. Experiments indicate that refreshing the bodies blood sugar between bouts of exerting willpower makes it more likely that you will be successful with the subsequent tests of your willpower. After your diet salad for lunch if you drink some lemonade, you will be less likely to overspend when clothes shopping.

Also, continuing your frugal spending habits will make it easier to push away from the dinner table without having that second helping because you will have trained your willpower.

Interesting article, check it out.

I wonder how much of a bonus on my willpower check I get for eating a Snickers bar?