Increase your willpower by practicing it

Lifehacker is one of the website which I consider a treasure of knowledge. What makes Lifehacker so good is that the tips and tricks that are blogged are useful for all kinds of people. Gina does a great job.

Recently I came across an article called Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind - New York Times on Lifehacker which reviews the article of the same name on New York times. The article in New York Times has been written by Sandra Aamodt, the editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience, and Sam Wang, an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton, and shares results of various studies done on willpower. The article discussed various studies though it is not mentioned who undertook the studies and neither the detailed findings are shared. In the studies it has been observed that if a person uses will power when doing a particular task and does not exercise his will power on other tasks he might be involved in while doing the primary task, a person would be able to exercise self control better. For example if you do not want to drink too much at a party, then on the way to the festivities, you should not deplete your willpower by window shopping for items you cannot afford. Taking an alternative route to avoid passing the store would be a better strategy.

Willpower grows like muscles. The more you practice higher the success in exercising will power. It is not known whey willpower grows when one exercises willpower more, though the trick is to exercise willpower in the long run to grow your willpower.

After The Dot Net