As we hurtle towards the end of the year and the chocolates start mounting up on our desks, the older parts of our evolutionary brain come under increasing pressure to focus on the long-term outcomes rather than the short term gratification.  

Willpower is often thought of as a ‘have or have-not’,  however researchers have shown that willpower is actually more like a muscle.  Like any muscle, if you put it under too much strain for too long a period it begins to fatigue.  Equally, like any good muscle, if you continue to strengthen it, it becomes able to handle more stress and strain for longer periods of time.  So how do we apply this to chocolates on our desk and the fact that it’s nearly the holiday season...

Daytime fatigue - as willpower is like a muscle it's better in the morning.  That’s why most people are more disciplined earlier on in the day.  If you have an arduous task that you have been...

Throughout our day we make 1000’s of decisions both consciously and subconsciously. When it comes to understanding willpower we have things that we would like to be doing and things that we definitely want to stop doing. In terms of willpower we can divide these into ‘will’-power challenges and ‘won’t’-power challenges.   For example, if you want to limit eating junk food or stop watching so much TV, these would be termed won’t-power challenges.  On the other hand if you want to exercise or floss your teeth everyday these would be will-power challenges.  

So the first step in your willpower success is to divide these mentally into things that you want to be doing and things that you want to stop doing.  With this list divided appropriately, you can then start the process towards change.

Willpower is a muscle:  If you think of willpower as a muscle the more willpower press-ups you do the...