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Reflection Title: Willpower is a Finite Resource!

Book – The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, Creativity – and will determine the fate of the human race. (Part 2 of 2)

Reflection:
The Molecule of More talked about a really interesting experiment that I can’t get out of my mind. Back in 1996, Roy Baumeister conducted an experiment that was downright evil.

Together with his former Case Western Reserve University colleagues Ellen Bratslavsky, Mark Muraven, and Dianne Tice, he examined the effect of a tempting food challenge designed to deplete participants' willpower through the awful power of an unfulfilled promise of chocolate!

In the first part of the trial, Baumeister kept the 67 study participants in a room that smelled of freshly baked chocolate cookies and then teased them further by showing them the actual treats alongside other chocolate-flavored confections. While some did get to indulge their sweet tooth, the subjects in the experimental condition, whose resolves were being tested, were asked to eat radishes instead.

After the food bait-and-switch, Baumeister's team gave the participants a second, supposedly unrelated exercise, a persistence-testing puzzle. The effect of the manipulation was immediate and undeniable. Those who ate radishes made far fewer attempts and devoted less than half the time solving the puzzle compared to the chocolate-eating participants and a control group that only joined this latter phase of the study.

What this study ultimately proved was that willpower is a finite resource and can be depleted. We only have so much energy that we can devote to fight against what we want…i.e. what our dopamine is telling us to do.

This reminded me of a recent philosophy that I came across that a lot of people are adopting today, called “Eating the Frog”. Eating the frog is doing the thing that needs to be done, but you don’t love doing it. The theory is to eat the frog first thing in the morning to get it out of the way and on with your day. It is an exercise in human willpower. I’ve even seen gyms popping up in my city that are a franchise called “Eat the Frog Fitness”. To me, that means that we know fitness is important, but we hate it. Get your butt in the gym, embrace the suck, get some exercise, and get this gorilla off your back first thing in the morning.

Here is the problem with the Eat the Frog concept…who the hell wants to Eat a Frog…ever? Sounds a lot like eating the radish in the experiment. Radishes suck! If this is what I have to do to stay fit, that doesn’t sound fun. Remember, willpower is a finite resource and can be depleted. If I use all my willpower and energy to eat the frog first thing in the morning, then what do I have left for the remainder of the day? Well, if this study is to be believed, a lot less than everyone else eating the cake.

So, what I say is, Eat the Damn Cake!

Don’t fight your dopamine, work with it. The trick is to convince your dopamine that the frog is the cake! It is a simple reframing of an activity to turn it from a willpower depleting one to one that gives you energy and joy.

How do you do this? I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but the answer is always values. Eating the cake process is simple. It starts by selecting the values that represent you and how you want to live your life. From there, select activities that you want to do that could reflect those values you hold so dear. Then go do the activity. It is really that easy.

Here is an example. After you select your values, let’s say one of them turns out to be health. That’s great! Then pick an activity that reflects “health” in your mind. Let’s say you choose daily exercise as one of those activities. Well, when you wake up in the morning, get to the gym. What you will find is it that working out starts to feel as good and energizing as eating a piece of cake. You are doing what you say you want and there is a never-ending supply of dopamine to fuel your energy.

If willpower is a limited resource, Values Provide Unlimited Energy! Not only that, if you eat the cake first thing in the morning, you will have set yourself up with an energy boost to tackle the rest of the day vs. the alternative of eating the frog and depleting your finite willpower. If you are smart, you’ll recognize that feeling and seek to fill the rest of your day with more activities that reflect your values. It will fill like you are eating cake all damn day!

I just finished my first slice of cake by writing this refection, off to eat some more while I go run and listen to my audiobook. I’m going to be so stuffed by the end of the day…lol.

Don’t use willpower to eat that frog, use values to eat that cake!

Question: Do you want Chocolate or Radishes?