Willpower: How Does It Affect Our Decisions?

Our company identifies key business issues. And only in the rarest cases are they caused by the influence of some irresistible external force.

Most of the problems in business and in our lives arise because of the wrong decisions once made. We err due to the lack or unreliable nature of the information.

This is fine. But few people realize that we make mistakes even when we have all the necessary data. We simply lack the willpower to make the right decision.

Willpower is a finite and rapidly expendable store of energy.

Willpower is closely related to success. In Michel Walter’s famous marshmallow experiment, children who waited 15 minutes and didn’t eat a marshmallow had higher grades, a better education, a better job, and fewer health problems in the future.

Usually, weak or strong willpower is spoken of as a person’s ability. But it is more correct to represent willpower as energy. At different points in time, we can be fully “charged” or vice versa, energetically “exhausted”.

There was such an experiment: people enter a room filled with the fragrant smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. A pile of these cookies is in the plate right in front of them. The other bowl contains a radish.

While the experiment is being prepared, one group is asked to eat radishes, the other — sweets. After that, everyone is invited to solve a logical puzzle that does not have a correct answer.

Those who ate the cookies spent an average of 19 minutes trying to find the answer. Those who got the radish gave up after 8.

In this experiment by Roy Baumeister, people who held back their desire to taste chocolate used up their reserve of self-control. They were simply not enough to solve the problem.

Martin Hagger collected data from 198 such experiments: people were asked to control their emotions, watch a movie, play with words or choose brands of soap. The result was similar to the situation with the radish — mental tension reduces the reserves of willpower for subsequent actions.

Willpower is like a muscle — after exercise, it loses strength and takes time to recover.

That is why it is so difficult to maintain a diet. Fighting all day with our desires to eat something tasty, by the evening we look at the last page of the menu and think: “I have the right to reward myself with a piece of cake for a whole day of proper nutrition.”

All willpower may not be enough

Self-control, planning, taking the initiative, making decisions — all this requires willpower. When we talk about volitional efforts, such tasks as “quit smoking”, “forget past relationships” come to mind. These are complex tasks that require effort.

In fact, our energy is expended in a thousand little streams. We think about when and what to eat, what site to open, how to relax, what to watch on TV, where to go in the evening. These are by no means life-changing elections, but in the end they lead to general fatigue in decision-making.

This partly explains why, after a long and hard day at the office, we come home, bark at a partner, sit down in front of the computer and pour wine — the reserves of self-control are used up.

Lack of willpower leads to standard decisions

And now the first practical advice: if you want to get out of prison early, then try to get to the judge in the morning.

This is no longer an experiment, but Shae Danziger’s analysis of 1112 real court decisions, which account for 40% of all requests for parole in Israel in ten months. The verdicts were delivered by eight judges with an average experience of 22 years.

The results are dramatic. The chances that a prisoner will be granted parole start at about 65% if the case was heard in the morning and drop to almost zero after a few hours.

Let me remind you that we are talking about judges whose profession involves making rational decisions — they must be based on approved laws and objective facts.

Judges are people too. And their willpower is not unlimited. Mental fatigue does not lead to positive or negative decisions, not to the refusal to make them. A person simply begins to act according to standard or familiar patterns. In our case, the safest way out is to leave the prisoners in custody.

A similar situation can be observed when shopping: if we have already purchased several items, the next purchase is likely to be the default option, whether we buy a sweater or a car.

It’s not even bad that our reserves of self-control are limited. Rather, they are simply small. True, there is a pleasant moment: willpower, like any muscle, can be “pumped up”.

We stock up on willpower

1. We do not waste our efforts on nonsense. The easiest way is to save willpower and not waste it on trifles.

Even trivial decisions take energy. The more actions you put in «automatic mode», the better.

People in positions of responsibility understand this very well. Former US President Barack Obama wore the same type of suit for exactly this reason: “I try to reduce the number of decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I eat or wear. Because I have too many other decisions to make.»

Another way is to reduce the number of situations that you spend a lot of resources on. Therefore, dieters are advised to put food in the refrigerator, and it is better not to store it at home at all. Quit smoking — do not keep a pack of cigarettes with you, people who have ended relationships — remove all things reminiscent of a former partner. The closer a temptation is to us, the more willpower is required to resist it.

2. We introduce elements of entertainment. When a child goes to the store with his mother and jumps over the cracks in the tiles, «so as not to fall into the abyss», the path becomes much more interesting for him.

We retain willpower if we are involved in a process that contains elements of fun. Even a slight hint that our current activity is entertainment will save mental energy. In the study of Giuliano Laran, just one phrase “now we will conduct an interesting experiment” changed the attitude towards the experiment itself and removed the negative impact on subsequent decisions.

I saw similar examples in my practice, although more often with a minus sign. If employees get bored with their work and force themselves to focus, their ability to make non-standard decisions drops to zero almost immediately.

3. We use 10 ways to train willpower. Willpower can be developed. Sleep, meditation, planning, water, exercise are all right and you know it.

We recommend willpower training methods that do not require much preparation. Our task is not to create a superpersonality, but to increase the effectiveness of the actions of leaders. This is not the formation of new habits, so the duration of each practice is limited to one week.

1. Hold the handshake for as long as possible.
2. Do you drink coffee with sugar? Give up sugar for a week. Or reduce the rate by one mug.
3. Use your non-dominant hand more often — opening a door, controlling a mouse, eating, brushing your teeth.
4. Control your posture — just try to sit up straight.
5. Create if-then-style plans: “If they offer me a chocolate bar, I will instantly ask if they have spinach salad.”
6. Do you like to read entertaining tapes? Get out of your life for a week.
7. Walk at least a couple of floors up the stairs, struggling with the thoughts «why is this necessary» and «I have no time.» Or at least walk part of the way to work.
8. Refuse or transfer momentary temptations for several days ahead.
9. In the evening, when you come home, turn off your mobile phone until morning.
10. Regulate your mood and control what you eat or what you save money for.