Where there's a will...

My husband pointed me towards an article in the latest Wired magazine...in searching for it online, I came across one published earlier this year that's more comprehensive and dealing with the same subject. Willpower. The findings of the latest studies are very interesting - let's look at the main point, and then figure out what it means for all of us.

Big Idea: Willpower is incredibly feeble. We have a hard time saying "no" all the time, and the more times we have to say "no," the easier it is to turn that "no" into a "yes." So if there were two hundred individual socks scattered around the floor and you had to bend down to pick up each one, somewhere around the 100th one (or earlier, depending on your own personality) you would probably say "Screw this, I'm going to go watch TV," leaving the rest of the socks to languish on the floor. Hmmmm...maybe this analogy only works well for parents...oh well, hopefully you get the idea. In practical terms, that means that your success at, say, eating a healthy and balanced diet has way more to do with your environment than you might think. How many times a day do you have to choose to eat an apple instead of a Snickers? Are nutritious food choices fewer and farther between in your workplace? Is there an office candy jar, and are donuts and bagels served at meetings? Every time you have to say "no," you're using up your precious store of willpower.

Willpower is limited and easily worn down...so what to do? Well, here are a few ideas:

1. Set your intentions as clearly as you can. What are your goals? To be healthier? To lose weight? Get specific about those goals...really think about what "healthy" or "weight loss" means to YOU. And this is important...once you've clarified your goals, try to bring them closer to the surface of your mind. The more conscious you make yourself of what you want to achieve, the more you'll recognize the obstacles (within and outside of you) to getting where you want to go. Once you've narrowed things down and focused in...

2. Shift your home environment. This is the area that's most under your control. Get rid of all the crap in your cupboards, just throw it out...that way the choices that you do have to make will be between one good-for-you option or another. If you have to say "no" to the ice cream every time you open the fridge, you'll end up saying "yes" more than you want to. When your home more truly reflects your intentions...

3. Shift your work environment. Pack healthy snacks to bring with you to work so that you're not trying to make a choice while you're starving (according to the article, we make poorer choices when we're tired or have low blood sugar). When it's your turn to bring the snacks for the meeting, bring nuts and fruit. Talk to your boss/coworkers about replacing the candy jar with mints or sugar-free gum - a quiet mention about rising healthcare costs would probably aid you in this one. ;)

4. Avoid temptation. The Wired article states that the most strongly-willed people that were studied "are able to intelligently steer clear of situations that trigger problematic desires. They don’t resist temptation - they avoid it entirely. While unsuccessful dieters try to not eat the ice cream in their freezer, thus quickly exhausting their limited willpower resources, those high in self-control refuse to even walk down the ice cream aisle in the supermarket." That's what all the shifting of your home and work situations is about - removing the crap so that you have plenty of willpower left over for other stuff, like exercise, reading, playing with your kids, or whatever you would do if you weren't desperately trying not to eat the chocolate in the cupboard.

Most of us will try to skip #1 and go right to the other suggestions...I'm guilty of this as well. I urge you, though, to take the time to figure out why you want to change, and who you want to change into. Pick up all the socks just this one time, give yourself a clean slate, and go boldly forward. Good luck!! :)