In my breakdown of willpower, I discussed “The Great Willpower Debate” – an ongoing disagreement among psychologists about the nature of willpower. Long story short:
- Some researchers have found that willpower is a finite resource that gets depleted as you use it. If you use willpower for one task, you’ll have less for the next task.1
- Meanwhile, other researchers have found that using willpower for one task can actually boost your willpower on the next task, especially if you believe it will.2
Interestingly, there’s a sense in which both camps see willpower as a muscle. The first camp focuses on how the muscle gets tired with use, while the other camp observes that using your willpower muscle for one task is like a warm-up exercise for the tasks that follow.
Well, I certainly agree that the brain is like a bunch of muscles. And frankly, I see the truth in both of these perspectives. It’s not either-or; it’s both.
If you spend all day exerting self-control to do hard things, you’ll wear yourself out. That’s why we need rest and recovery.
But it’s also difficult to just get going. I, for one, don’t usually wake up feeling like Captain Willpower.
I need to work up doing hard things. I need a willpower warm-up.
Willpower Warm-Up Routines
Each morning, I engage in a routine of self-care that gets my day rolling. I step outside and move my body. I exercise, take in some wisdom, and meditate. Partly, I do these things because they cultivate long-term physical and mental health. But I also do them because they warm up my willpower muscle.
None of the activities in my morning routine takes a great deal of willpower; they’re just light doses of effort that get me warmed up for the more difficult work to come.
Here are some other willpower warm-ups you can try when it’s time to start (or restart) your work:
- Make your bed (Click here to watch Admiral McRaven’s speech about the power of this little task.)
- Do the dishes, take out the trash, or do some other minor chore
- Take a cold shower (See also: Discomfort Training)
- Go for a quick walk
- Tackle some small, relatively easy item on your to-do list
- Do one or two minutes of exercise: squats, pushups, etc.
- Read a page out of a book or read a blog post
- Do a few math problems
Anything that uses a little willpower will do. It’ll provide a small but meaningful boost to your sense of self-efficacy, giving you the confidence to begin the real work of your day.
Laziness is not a permanent character trait; it is a temporary mental state. Give yourself a quick warm-up, build a little mental momentum, and you’ll discover that you do, in fact, have enough willpower to do what needs to be done.
1 Baumeister, Roy F., and John Tierney. Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
. Penguin Group, 2011.
2 Job, V., et al. (2010). “Ego depletion — Is it all in your head? Implicit theories about willpower affect self-regulation.” Psychological Science, 21(11), 1686–1693.