Willpower
Here is a link to an interesting article "Willpower is best used with care," on the findings of psychologists that self-control is more determinate of success than talent, that willpower can be strengthened like a muscle through excercise, and that it can be fatigued and depleted. Excerpt:
... the general principle - not to spread our inner resolve too thin - is an important one. If you are about to embark on a big project you court disaster if at the same time your life is cluttered and demanding, or you also commit to draining attempts at self-enhancement. The would-be novelist whose taxing day job exhausts her moral muscle will find it harder to apply the seat of her trousers to the seat of her chair. The dieting philosopher will struggle to keep his attention on a tricky passage of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Comments
treebones on Aug. 3, 2006 7:45 PM
So the best combination is going to be a mix of the two...a regular program of reasonable self-restraint, harnessed to an avoidance of optional willpower drains.
Hrm. I've been gearing up to do a variant on this; hopefully I can wave the research at myself to give the necessary boost to make it so. (:
trav13369 on Aug. 3, 2006 9:57 PM — It's easy to notice...
when a person's life is crazy, trying to sit, concentrate, and do something else is hard.
BTW, that whole "Addicted to getting coated in minty goodness" thing, Linda's dad got us mint nutty-buddys from Schwan's.
We'll get back to you on that ROFL!
matt-arnold on Aug. 3, 2006 10:28 PM — Re: It's easy to notice...
You must be referring to this. It's time for me to blog about it.
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