FLEX YOUR MENTAL MUSCLE

Think of your willpower as being like a muscle – to build it up you need to put in the training

YOU SEE IT ALL THE TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: quotes such as ‘You are stronger than you realise’ and ‘Your body can stand almost anything – it’s your mind you have to convince.’ Cliches, yes, but that doesn’t make them invalid. Science shows we may give up during a workout because we think our bodies can’t handle any more. It’s that moment when your muscles are burning and your lungs feel like they’re on fire. You tell yourself, ‘I just need a quick break,’ allowing your legs to slow and heart rate to drop. Only afterward do you realise that you probably could have pushed through the doubts.

And that depressing realisation is proof that your willpower muscle could benefit from additional training. It’s just like any physical muscle – neglecting to use it causes atrophy, which makes it that much harder to call upon when you actually need it.

‘Willpower needs to be trained. The more you have, the more you can overcome mental fatigue and psychological challenges to become a better runner,’ says Nathan Dewall, a professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, US, who studies self-regulation.

A hard interval workout isn’t the only time willpower starts to wane, either. It can happen when your late-night snack choice is cake over carrots, or when you decide to binge on a new Netflix show instead of getting the sleep you so desperately need to recover. The good news is boosting willpower is easier than you think. The following simple tactics will help train your brain to say, ‘Yes, go!’ when your body starts screaming, ‘No, please, no!’

CREATE A TRAINING SCHEDULE TO ELIMINATE QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR WORKOUT. THAT WAY, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS THE RUNNING

TAKE BABY STEPS

The science behind building any muscle applies just as much to willpower – the more you use it, the stronger it becomes. But always bear in mind that if you exert too much, too soon, you’re likely to run out of gas. Again, just like a muscle.

Case in point: before Dewall took up racing 100-mile events, he was overweight and out of shape. ‘I used to eat Mike & Ike candies [chewy, fruit-flavoured sweets] all the time,’ he says. ‘But when I set a goal to run a marathon, my first challenge was to walk past the candy aisle. Over time, I incrementally took on harder obstacles.’ Had Dewall tried to revamp his entire diet and start training regularly all at once, he says there’s a higher likelihood he would have failed.

That’s why he suggests creating a three-pronged plan: define your goals, identify the obstacles that will be in your way and plan how you will overcome those obstacles – and then gradually do so.

‘Start with the smallest challenges, as those will help build your confidence and willpower to take on tougher obstacles,’ says Dewall. ‘Eventually, what once seemed hard won’t anymore, and you’ll be ready to move on to more difficult things.’

GO MINIMAL

While it’s easy to poke fun at anyone’s who’s making a big song and dance about decluttering their wardrobe, people who embrace the minimalism movement are actually onto something. It is extremely difficult to be hyper-focused on everything at once, says Michael Joyner, expert on human performance at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, US. ‘In order to become a maximalist, you’ve got to be a minimalist.’

In other words, if you’re tackling a big goal that you know will require a great deal of your willpower, do what you can to automate some of your smaller decisions. ‘Every choice takes mental energy,’ says Joyner. ‘The fewer there are, the better.’

Your first step should be to go after the lowhanging fruit. In the case of a running goal, designate a specific time to hit the road every day so you don’t need to think about it. Then, make getting out the door as easy as you can – lay out your gear the night before and set your alarm so you get up on time. Also, create a training schedule (or, if possible, hire a coach) to eliminate questions about your workout. That way, all you have to do is the running.

Last, arrange your environment to limit the need to make hard decisions. Can’t resist that cake you baked? Give it to someone. Scrolling through Twitter instead of sleeping? Stash your phone out of your reach. ‘You can deliberately design your environment so that it’s not battling against you,’ says Dewall. ‘When it’s set up to work in your favour, you can accomplish more.’

THINK LONG-TERM

The tough part about willpower is that you have to flex its muscle over and over in order for it to truly be successful. And that means you have to trust that your future self will use willpower, too. A 2009 study found that people who show better self-control do so because they don’t see a disconnect between their current and future selves. In the study, when these people were presented with the option of taking a small sum of money now or a large amount later, they chose the latter. Scientists theorise that’s because they saw their future self as the same as – or better than – their present self, so the delay was worth it.

Dewall says the best way to establish this trust with yourself is the same method you’d use to decide you trust another person – proof. ‘Every time you overcome an obstacle, that’s evidence you can make the hard decision,’ he says. ‘When you know you’ve done hard things in the past, future challenges are no longer threats, and you gain this trust that you can confront them.’