Happy New Year! Each year when December rolls over into January, a widespread phenomenon called the New Year’s resolution occurs. The idea is that the change of year affords one the opportunity to press reset, so to speak, and attempt to adopt a new, favorable habit (or at least ditch an old, unfavorable one). The only problem, you see, is that New Year’s resolutions do not work… at all.

In 2007, Richard Wiseman, a psychology professor in the United Kingdom, tracked 3,000 people as they made New Year’s resolutions. While over half of the participants were confident of their success at the outset, the actual result one year later was abysmal. Only about 12 percent—just one in eight people—achieved their goal. Did Wiseman and his crew just happen to pick over 2,600 lazy, uncommitted participants for this study? Or does this highlight a greater issue about how humans make decisions and choices in their everyday lives?

What is it about making good decisions that can sometimes be so hard? Many weight loss clients, despite rationally knowing it is the right thing to do, have trouble sticking to a diet. Many athletes, despite being told repeatedly to do so, consistently fail to work on their mobility. The key factor here is willpower, and understanding what it is and how it works will benefit you and those you work with greatly.

Willpower and Decision Fatigue

In their 2012 book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, Roy Baumeister and John Tierney discuss the subtleties of willpower and self-control. Interestingly enough, it was not always widely accepted that people have the ability to control their own thoughts, desires, and actions. Now, in part due to research done by psychologists all over the world, it is a well-documented fact that people do indeed draw upon their willpower to either make good decisions or resist from making bad ones.

But willpower is a finite resource, akin to the gas tank in your car (1,2). Each day you draw upon the reserve of willpower whenever you make a decision, no matter how large or small. Choosing between scrambled and fried eggs in the morning is a decision, just as deciding between going back to grad school or taking a job in the city is, although they clearly differ by degree of importance.

When you slow down and take notice, you'll see that your life is actually full of tiny little choices all the time. From deciding which clothes to wear to what to eat for lunch to what to do this weekend, your brain is constantly at work choosing between this and that, that and this.

Have you ever driven your car to the point where it completely runs out of gas, sputters, and stops running? Yeah, me neither. But if you have, then you know how it is a very similar to process to what happens when we run out of willpower. This term is decision fatigue, and it is a very real psychological phenomenon that occurs when we have simply depleted our ability to make choices (3). Often, what happens next is that we default to the easier decision, whether or not that is actually the wise thing to do.
Consider what most people do when they go on a diet. Breakfast is often no problem: they are at home, have very few temptations, and have yet to make any other fatiguing decisions that day. Lunch is a bit riskier, as there are other people indulging in bad foods all around them, and they’ve already had a morning of work that used up some willpower.

However, by dinner, and especially dessert, many people are so mentally exhausted from a day full of decisions that it is much easier to choose whatever food is lying around, regardless of whether it fits on their diet plan or not. To a busy lawyer working 60+ hours each week, the familiar pasta and marinara sauce is a lot easier than trying some new Paleo recipe they have never made.

Leveraging Willpower to Make Better Decisions

Fortunately, there are many steps we can take to avoid decision fatigue and use willpower to our advantage. First of all, willpower is a trainable quality, and just like a muscle, it can increase in size and strength when placed under an appropriate amount of stress and allowed to recover (4).

For instance, researchers in one particular study found that monitoring and correcting posture throughout the day can lead to significant improvements in willpower (5). That is, something as simple and mundane as sitting up straight, like your mother always told you to do, can actually help with self-control.

Likewise, willpower is like a bank account in that you have the ability to both withdraw and deposit funds. If you spend all your money, then you will go bankrupt. However, if you save up, invest wisely, and reduce excess spending, then your bank account (or willpower) will slowly increase.

One practical method to reduce spending your willpower is simply to avoid having to make that many decisions each day. The key here is to pre-commit to the decision and automate various aspects of your life. If you are trying to eat clean, then get rid of any bad food in your house. Without having the option of processed junk, eating well requires no self-control.

Alternatively, consider planning out your meals, and even preparing them, the previous day. During commercial breaks of your favorite television show (So You Think You Can Dance, anyone?), simply grab a pen and paper and jot down what you plan on eating the next day. Bonus points if you actually go and prep the food afterwards, thus virtually eliminating any future act of volition required to eat well.

In the gym, perhaps you have experienced paralysis by analysis, struggling to make a decision between this or that workout routine. If this is the case, then you should hire a coach or follow a set program. This outsources the task of program design, thus freeing up your mind to focus on other decisions that matter to you.

Also of note, researchers have found that glucose plays a key role in decision fatigue (6). That is, the less glucose you have readily available for your brain, the harder it is to choose wisely. Thus, if you know you have a hard decision coming up, then you should go into it with a full tank (of glucose).

For example, if you are going out to dinner with friends but want to stay strict Paleo, then eat a small meal of meat and vegetables beforehand. This allows you to confidently order a grilled chicken salad with a tall glass of water when your friends start ordering extra cheese pizza and hoppy beer. Making this kind of decision on an empty stomach can take serious effort and deplete your willpower for future decisions.

Last, do your best to reduce clutter at home, at work, and at the gym. Both physically and psychologically, clutter can be draining on willpower. If you are staring at a messy desk, you are subconsciously wasting energy on deciding what not to work on. Similarly, if your gym has a bunch of unnecessary equipment littered throughout, part of your workouts will be deciding on what not to use.

It is my sincere hope that by using what you now know about willpower, you will be able to avoid decision fatigue, make better choices, set clear goals, and maybe even beat the odds and achieve your New Year’s Resolution.

References
1. Self-control as a limited resource: Regulatory depletion patterns. Muraven, Mark; Tice, Dianne M.; Baumeister, Roy F. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 74(3), Mar 1998, 774-789. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.74.3.774
2. Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Baumeister, Roy F.; Bratslavsky, Ellen; Muraven, Mark; Tice, Dianne M. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 74(5), May 1998, 1252-1265. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.74.5.1252
3. Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: A limited-resource account of decision-making, self-regulation, and active initiative. Vohs, Kathleen D.; Baumeister, Roy F.; Schmeichel, Brandon J.; Twenge, Jean M.; Nelson, Noelle M.; Tice, Dianne M., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 94(5), May 2008, 883-898. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.94.5.883
4. Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: Does self-control resemble a muscle? Muraven, Mark; Baumeister, Roy F. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 126(2), Mar 2000, 247-259. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.126.2.247
5. Longitudinal Improvement of Self-Regulation Through Practice: Building Self-Control Strength Through Repeated Exercise Muraven, Mark; Baumeister, Roy F., Tice, Dianne M. The Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 139(4), Aug 1999, 446-457. doi: 10.1080/00224549909598404
6. Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor. Gailliot, Matthew T.; Baumeister, Roy F.; DeWall, C. Nathan; Maner, Jon K.; Plant, E. Ashby; Tice, Dianne M.; Brewer, Lauren E.; Schmeichel, Brandon J. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 92(2), Feb 2007, 325-336. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.92.2.325