Chiang's blog

Different people define success in different ways - a happy family, having a confidant, being wealthy... However, the qualities needed to achieve these different definitions of success are the same. Psychologists have found that self-control is the best predictor of success.

People with strong willpower and those with weak willpower are mainly reflected in the following aspects:

• Goal pursuit: People with strong willpower are usually able to pursue their goals firmly, overcome difficulties and setbacks, and not easily give up; while those with weak willpower may easily give up when faced with difficulties, lacking perseverance.

• Self-control: People with sufficient willpower can better control their emotions, behavior, and desires, resist temptations, and maintain self-discipline; on the other hand, those with weak willpower may be more easily influenced by external temptations and have difficulty controlling their behavior.

• Decision-making ability: People with strong willpower can think calmly and make wise decisions when faced with complex situations; while those with weak willpower may hesitate and lack decisiveness.

• Adaptability: When faced with changes and challenges, people with sufficient willpower can adapt and adjust their mindset and behavior more quickly; those with weak willpower may feel overwhelmed and have relatively weak adaptability.

• Long-term planning: People with strong willpower are more likely to make long-term plans and strive for them; while those with weak willpower may focus more on immediate benefits and lack long-term planning and goals.

Therefore, it is very important to understand what willpower is, what its characteristics are.

Characteristics of Willpower#

1. Willpower is like a muscle, it gets tired after use.

Social psychologist Roy Baumeister conducted a series of studies on willpower. One of the experiments involved asking participants to resist the temptation to eat chocolate for a period of time, and then perform a task that required concentration and problem-solving. Compared to a control group that did not experience willpower depletion, participants who resisted the temptation to eat chocolate performed worse in the subsequent task, indicating that their willpower was fatigued.

These experiments suggest that willpower is like a finite resource that gets depleted after use. When people expend a lot of willpower in one task, they may find it more difficult to persevere, more likely to give up, or perform poorly in the next task.

In many unhappy marriages, couples with jobs argue constantly over trivial matters in the evenings. The main reason for this is the depletion of willpower - they have exhausted their energy in their long work hours, leaving no energy to tolerate their partner's annoying habits, care for and be considerate of each other.

2. Willpower is limited.

In the 1970s, psychologist Daryl Bem from Stanford University wanted to do something: create a checklist to distinguish responsible people from irresponsible people. He assumed a positive correlation between "doing homework on time" and "wearing clean socks" because both behaviors are signs of responsibility. However, after collecting data from Stanford students and analyzing it, he was surprised to find a significant negative correlation between the two.

He didn't think much about it at the time, but decades later, other researchers began to suspect that there might be something hidden behind this joke. Two Australian psychologists, Megan Oaten and Ken Cheng, came up with a possible explanation, that students were influenced by the self-depletion revealed by the carrot experiment. These psychologists conducted laboratory tests to assess students' self-control at different times during the same semester, and as expected, students' self-control test scores were relatively poor towards the end of the semester, presumably because their willpower had been depleted in preparing for exams and submitting assignments. But the deterioration was not only reflected in the laboratory self-control test scores. After investigating the students' lives, the researchers found that Bem's phenomenon of dirty socks was not accidental. During the exam season, students' self-control was greatly depleted, and all kinds of good habits were abandoned.

The Essence of Willpower#

Just as our physical movements consume energy, our mental activities such as thinking, regulating emotions, and persisting in behavior also consume energy - "willpower." The process of willpower consumption. Baumeister describes the weakening of people's ability to regulate their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as "self-depletion."

Self-depletion has warning signs. An experiment by psychologist Vohs showed that people who had depleted their willpower, although they did not show any warning emotions, had stronger reactions to various things. Compared to those who were not depleted, the same tragedy made the former sadder, the same happy picture made the former happier, the same horror picture made the former more fearful and anxious, and the same ice water felt more chilling to the former. The strengthening is not only in terms of feelings but also desires. After eating a cookie, the former craves another one - if they can eat as much as they want, they will indeed eat more; when they see a packaged gift box, they have a stronger desire to open it.

Applications of Willpower#

We can divide the application of willpower into four categories: controlling thoughts, controlling emotions, controlling impulses, and controlling performance.

Controlling thoughts has two manifestations: one is controlling oneself from thinking about something, and the other is controlling oneself to focus on something.

Controlling emotions is also known as "emotion regulation." Emotions are particularly difficult to control because you generally cannot use willpower to change your mood. You can change your thoughts or behaviors, but you cannot force yourself to be happy.

Controlling impulses is also known as "resisting temptation." Most people think of this when they hear about willpower. Strictly speaking, "controlling impulses" is an improper term, as we are not controlling the impulse itself, but our response to it.

Controlling performance means concentrating energy on the current task, achieving a certain speed and accuracy, and persevering when tempted to give up.