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Willpower & Habit

How to have willpower without the overwhelm.

A lack of willpower is the number 1 reason my clients give me when I ask what their main barrier was to making healthy changes to their diet and lifestyle

No willpower?

Willpower takes effort and brain power. We make around 200 food decisions a day, each of which drains willpower – if you’re having to use effort. If there are biscuits by the kettle or birthday cake in the office, your willpower takes another hit each time you resist it.

This is why your environment is key to supporting your behaviour. Putting things out of sight or not having snacks in the house is an obvious step because you’re not calling on your willpower to resist every time you see them and helps to prevent mindless eating.

 

Willpower vs the power of habit

Habit puts things into automatic pilot and requires low brain effort, saving our willpower for more important stuff. Willpower might get you started, but it’s your habits that will see you nailing your eating behaviour consistently and for the long term.

Once a behaviour is an automatic habit, there’s no decision making needed and you won’t need your willpower to maintain the behaviour. Think of anything you do regularly, like brushing your teeth or making your bed. You don’t really think about these things, you just do them automatically and these are your habits in action. Someone probably took the time when you were younger to nag you to clean your teeth and make your bed until it became a habit.

The problem with habits we want to change is:

• they’ve potentially been there for years (such as having a coffee as soon as you get up)
• probably started in childhood (like clearing your plate) or
• they might have a lot of emotional investment attached to them (such as sweet treats as a reward).

This means that to change any ingrained behaviours we have to consistently take small enough steps, that don’t cause us too much stress, and that we’re confident we can do.

But, you need to take action, not just think about it!

How to get started

• Small actions build the belief that you can do it.
• Choose one ‘add-in’ action rather than a ‘stop-doing’ action.
• Why do you want to change this habit, what’s your motivation?
• Make it so small that you’re confident you can do it – don’t say you’ll walk for 20 minutes if walking is new to you, start with 5 minutes or 2 minutes.
• Tie your new habit into something you already do automatically e.g. while boiling the kettle or cleaning your teeth. This can act as a cue for you to do your extra action.
• Tell yourself it’s just for 2 weeks rather than forever as that mindset can stop you getting started. Review after 2 weeks and decide if you feel better and want to continue.
• Put a reminder somewhere or set an alarm on your phone, otherwise life gets in the way and we forget.
• Plan for difficulties – what might get in the way and how are you going to handle that? If this, then what? This reduces decision making in the moment which needs willpower.
• Be accountable – have a visible planner on the fridge or a reminder on your phone. (I use the Lean PD app for accountability in all areas of my life).
• Review regularly – what worked? What didn’t? What could you do differently? Be kind to yourself, don’t beat yourself up if it didn’t go to plan. Try to learn from it and keep going rather than giving up because it wasn’t perfect…progress not perfection! This is real life, there will be stumbling blocks.
• If you feel OK with your new habit, can you increase it (slightly!) or add in something else? If it feels too much, scale back to what feels comfortable.
• Don’t try to change everything at once! If you’re having to use willpower in 1 area, it will deplete it for other behaviours, so just focus on 1 thing at a time.
• So, don’t despair if you think you’ve got no willpower. You can change. Build your habits slowly with small steps, one at a time, and before you know it, you’ll be doing it.
• Start with the adding-in behaviours first. Don’t beat yourself up when something goes wrong, learn from it and move on. But most importantly, just start!

So, don’t despair if you think you’ve got no willpower. You can change. Build your habits slowly with small steps, one at a time, and before you know it, you’ll be doing it.

Start with the adding-in behaviours first. Don’t beat yourself up when something goes wrong, learn from it and move on. But most importantly, just start!

Willpower vs the power of habit Habit puts things into automatic pilot and requires low brain effort, saving our willpower for more important stuff. Willpower might get you started, but it’s your habits that will see you nailing your eating behaviour consistently and for the long term.

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