Why Willpower Doesn't Work and What to Do About It

In their bestselling book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath describe the notion that self control, or willpower, is an exhaustible resource. The idea is well supported in the psychology literature, where typically it is referred to as ego depletion. In fact, over 100 studies have consistently shown that after exercising self control at Time 1, individuals are less able to exercise self control at Time 2.

As part of one such study – described by the Heath brothers in their book – experimenters set up two conditions in which participants restrained themselves from eating either radishes or chocolate chip cookies. Later, participants engaged in a problem-solving exercise consisting of a puzzle that, unbeknownst to them, couldn't actually be solved. Experimenters measured how long participants persisted in trying to solve the puzzle. So what were the findings? Well, as you may have guessed, participants who restrained themselves from eating cookies gave up on the puzzle much more quickly than their radish-abstaining counterparts. In fact, the radish-abstainers spent an average of 19 minutes trying to complete the puzzle, compared to only 8 minutes for the cookie-abstainers. The conclusion: because they had to expend more self control at time 1, the cookie-abstainers had less self control available for the puzzle activity and time 2.

Ego depletion arguably is the main reason why behavior change is so difficult. We struggle to change because, despite our best intentions, we simply run out of self control. Consider my example of wanting to lower my cholesterol. My dad recently had a heart transplant, so I've got all the motivation in the world to change. But, changing my behavior and eating healthier foods still requires a heavy dose of self-control, and, like all of us, I've only got so much of it to go around. Today, for example, I have to exercise self control in a number of different ways, including writing this blog entry, preparing a presentation for later in the week, not drinking soda (even though my company provides it for free!) and listening actively during meetings. By the time the evening rolls around, I probably won’t have very much self control left in the tank, and that’s why behavior change is so hard. The likelihood that I’ll order a pizza for dinner, rather than prepare a healthy meal from scratch, goes up as my limited supply of self control goes down.

Okay, so then how can we actually succeed in changing our behavior? Well, as it turns out, the secret lies in doing whatever we can to remove self control from the equation. In other words, we want to make changes that require very little willpower. Here are some quick tips on how to do just that:

1. Set Small Goals – Small changes require less self control that big ones. For example, to lower my cholesterol, I've set an initial modest goal of eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. This is much easier that completely revamping my diet.
2.  Minimize Uncertainty – We have to exercise additional self control when we don’t know precisely when and how we’ll implement a new behavior. For example, if I don’t have a plan for which fruits and vegetables I’ll eat and when, I’m less likely to follow through. By having a clear plan that minimizes decision points, we dramatically increase our chances for success.
3. Minimize the Amount of Effort Required – Make the change as easy on yourself as possible. In my case, eating raw vegetables obviates the need for me to do any additional cooking, thus making the change easier to implement.
4. Eliminate Any Additional Obstacles – We have to exercise additional self control whenever we encounter an obstacle to change, so it’s best simply to eliminate them whenever possible. In my case, I may not have time to prepare a healthy, veggie-filled meal every evening. On busier days, I often have dinner at a local, all-you-can eat salad bar. As a result, my busy schedule is less frequently an obstacle to healthy eating.