(The scientific research on willpower is explained further down below and will amaze you)

Can you hear them? The luring song of the Siren’s? ulysses-sirens

They are here to tempt you and lead you astray. That little, subtle voice in your head that convinces you to do those naughty things that keep you from reaching your career goals, saving money, losing weight, learning that new skill. This is what the Sirens sound like:

Come with us… you don’t need to go for a run today… you don’t need to phone that client… have another cookie, it won’t matter… there’s nothing wrong with watching more TV… do it tomorrow… do the dishes later… hit the snooze button one more time… buy some more shoes… start saving money next month… have some more ice cream… binge-watch Coronation Street… eat healthier next week… buy that new car… and on… and on…

Sound familiar?

The Ulysses Pact

In Greek mythology, Ulysses instructed his men to lash him to the mast of his ship as they approached the Sirens because he knew he wouldn’t be able to resist their temptation with will-power and rational thinking alone. He knew their lure would prove too much so he made a “pact” or a bond with himself and his men before the situation arose.

Why do you need a pact?

Because willpower alone isn’t enough. It’s a scientific fact that we only have a very small and finite amount of willpower and this can be depleted very easily.

Incidentally, did you know that willpower is TWICE as good a predictor of academic performance than an IQ test? Amazing isn’t it. More on that further down the page.

In his ground-breaking research conducted as recently as 1998, psychologist Roy Baumeister brought university students into a lab (it’s always students or mice) under the pretence of testing their problem solving skills. They were in fact being tested on their levels of willpower.

In the room were plates of radishes and plates of chocolate and the aroma of the chocolate delights filled the room as well, just to add to the temptation. Half of the students were allowed to eat the chocolate and the other half, the radishes. For the students who could eat the chocolate everything was fine and dandy. The other 50% it was a challenge and they had to exert a lot of willpower and resist eating the chocolates.

They were then taken through to another room and asked to try to solve a persistence-testing puzzle. It was immediately evident that the group who had to resist eating the chocolate would give up on the persistence-test puzzle would give up far sooner than the group who had indulged in chocolate. It was simply that they had used up all of their willpower resisting the chocolate and just couldn’t face exerting any more effort into another challenging task. They were “too tired” to continue.

Roy Baumeister states:

“willpower is not just a metaphor. We had been using the ideas of energy and depleted energy in a largely metaphorical fashion, but apparently it is the same basic energy that the body gets from food… It is also the same energy used for other metabolic activities. We’ve begun to learn about mind-body interactions — why self-control might deteriorate during premenstrual syndrome and how it may also interact with the immune system, which sometimes uses plenty of glucose when fighting off a disease. That’s why people may become cranky and irritable when they have been exposed to a cold: The immune system is using up the glucose so it’s hard to be patient!”

Your willpower is intrinsically linked to the levels of energy your body has in store for every other activity, such as exercising and working. If you have used all your willpower up meeting targets at work, or looking after the kids, there just might not be enough left in the reserves to “power” your willpower to stop eating those cookies or get up off the sofa and take some exercise.

Precommitment, willpower’s golden ally

Keep your willpower in your reserve for when you really need it and don’t waste it on tasks that you know you have to get accomplished regardless of how you feel. Pre-commit to doing the tasks that you usually have to use sheer willpower to accomplish. Turn them into routines so that they become rote and matter of fact. Keep that willpower in reserve so it is there when you need that extra push to really knock the ball out of the park. And remember, if you tell yourself you have willpower, you will usually find, you do.

Delayed gratification, your IQ, BMI and your brain

Have you ever heard of the Marshmallow Test?

Scientists at Stanford university asked four to five year old children to go into a room that had a table with a plate and one marshmallow on it. The children were told that they could choose to either eat the marshmallow that was on the plate in front of them or wait twenty minutes and they could then have two marshmallows instead as a reward.

Of course some children immediately ate the marshmallow in front of them and some opted to wait twenty minutes to receive the extra marshmallow. That’s children and people in general, right? What would you do?

Well, it turns out that those children that waited twenty minutes had higher SAT scores (a standardized test developed by the College Board for admissions to colleges across the USA) than the children who succumbed and ate the marshmallow on the plate. Twenty years later it was discovered that the children who had the willpower to wait for twenty minutes had lower BMI (Body Mass Index) than those who wanted instant gratification. And, in old age, the children who waited were found to have healthier brains than the children who couldn’t resist the marshmallow right in front of them.

Gain willpower, learn delayed gratification and you can benefit from: