The well-worn path of lifestyle change is one of initial enthusiasm that inevitably wanes. There are times when we feel super-motivated, but it’s the times we're not that we must consider, because, for success in any endeavour, consistency is critical.  Certainly, we give ourselves every chance by following the best practices of habit building, but ultimately it always hinges on a collection of decisions; am I going to do this now, or not?

Sometimes an easy decision, other times, not. The difference?

Willpower.

There is a lot more going on in this department than the ‘just doing it’ typically suggested by motivational slogans. Willpower is your mental muscle, and like any muscle, it fatigues.

Do pushups throughout the day and by days end your ability to do more is compromised. So too is your ability to make good decisions undermined by making decisions - any decisions.
But there is an insidious difference. When you can no longer do pushups you know exactly why - your muscles are tired and sore, but decision fatigue is not so apparent and you may not be consciously aware of being mentally drained. 

As John Tierney in Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, notes: you don’t realise that your brain is looking for one of two possible shortcuts: 

• Making decisions without due consideration resulting in reckless or irresponsible behaviour; said to explain (not justify) the often very public failures of those in high office to exert any control over their private lives.

• Postponement - no energy equals no decision. Studies have shown the single deciding factor in a parole hearing is neither the crime nor the suitability of the candidate, but the time of day in which their submission is heard. Early hearing (or immediately post lunch) - parole granted. Later in the day, denied - a simple deferment of the decision. But, of course, no decision is still a decision.

 

By lunchtime every day you may already have made hundreds of individual decisions. From whether to hit snooze one more time, socks or sandals, toast or crumpets, tram or train. They rapidly stack up, ranging from the trivial to the more significant, and they are all chipping away at your willpower.

Decision fatigue is cited as the reason Obama only ever wears grey or blue suits; why Facebook chief-geek Zuckerberg wears the same shirt every day. They are keeping their decision-making gunpowder dry just in case something comes up.

Like a new privacy law work around. Or nuclear war.

So, unless you happen to find yourself wearing socks and sandals, your poor decisions can at least be partly explained by science. The fatigued brain will seek short-term relief despite the long-term consequences, and this will obviously have a devastating effect on any planned lifestyle change.

So how do we ensure our best intentions are not derailed?

 

Shape your environment

 

You can easily hold one hand above your head, it's not exactly taxing, but see how long you can keep it there. The slightest consistent pressure will break down the strongest defences eventually and even if you resist temptation, you have still weakened your resolve. You can successfully deny yourself the biscuits in your desk drawer all day at work simultaneously giving yourself no chance of sticking to your nutritional or exercise plan after work.

Avoid temptation rather than resist it. Where you do have a degree of control over your environment, use it to your advantage - be certain that it supports your goals. You can’t remove the vending machines from work, but you can make sure you never have any loose change. 

You face enough obstacles in areas outside your influence so if you are incapable of ensuring sanctuary in an area over which you have complete control, you can safely relabel your goal a pipe dream. If progress depends on you not eating Tim Tams, there is no reasonable excuse for them ever to be in your house. None. Far from not giving yourself the best chance of success, you are not remotely serious. To think otherwise is nothing more than (further) delusion.
 

Eat something

 

We are all familiar with the mid-afternoon energy slump and that inevitable craving for food. And not just anything, something sweet; this is also a side-effect of decision fatigue. Glucose is fueling your brain, so it makes sense that a drop in blood sugar will not only erode willpower but that the brain will send an 'eat something sweet, NOW', message. Studies have shown that just rinsing your mouth with sugar water will do the job here, but for more practical purposes aim to keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day by consuming meals at regular intervals.

Note that this explains one of the more obvious flaws in the standard restrictive diet - a catch-22. To resist food, you need willpower. To have willpower, you need food. 

 If you have an important decision to make, eat something first.

 

Minimise decisions

 

You could take a leaf out of the Obama playbook and simplify as much as possible - wear the same clothes, eat the same foods, etc. but no doubt you would rather prefer to live a little and enjoy fashion and ordering off the menu. In that case, the best way to reduce your daily decision tally is by pre-deciding. Scheduling is a deceptively powerful tool through which you switch from decision to commitment.  

• If exercise is important to you, and to what you want to achieve, schedule it.
  

• If eating well is important to you, and to what you want to achieve, schedule it

If you don't schedule the things that are important to you, then your schedule will consist entirely of things that are important to others. Your choice. In the event of disruption to your schedule, this also encourages the mind to look for solutions rather than excuses.

Sooner or later, and repeatedly, the inevitable:

"Will I go to training? I. Can. Not. Be. Fucked."

"Maybe I'll just order a pizza."

Remember, these situations are not unique to you - they are not your own personal hell. We all have them - everybody.
Those who are successful in any endeavour make the right decision in these circumstances most of the time and that decision point is where you determine your success or failure. 

Scheduling helps us, despite our lack of enthusiasm, to move more towards acceptance than resistance - just dealing with it, and removes the opportunity for tiresome debate.
 

So what are you going to do about it?

 

   1.  Plan your day tomorrow - what's important.

Decide what you'll do, when you'll do it, and write it down. Stop making decisions. Start making commitments. This perspective and distance makes it difficult for us to even consider making time for anything that isn’t important to us, but if you want to write down 'watch reality TV for 5 hours,' go for it.
 

   2.  Then take care of some of the smaller stuff:

• what you will wear

• what you will have for breakfast

• what you will do for lunch

• when you will do any miscellaneous chores

• anything that can be decided now, decide now.

All of these things can be decided in a matter of minutes and mean you won't be wasting mental energy on them the next day.
You can further help by doing things as simple as packing your training gear or making your lunch. Simple actions, big difference.

    3.   Finally, a brain-dump.

You already have the important things taken care of but now, just for 1 minute write down anything else that comes to mind. Don't edit or censor, this is simply to get things out of your head to help you sleep. If anything important comes up - add it to your schedule, if not, fine. If you have to sit there writing 'I have nothing to write about' for 60sec, do so.

The point here is not to solve any problem, only to place it outside the mind. This technique can help to boost creativity and can help to provide solutions to troubling issues. 

Getting things out of our head and onto paper will eliminate any nocturnal deliberations and the mind, knowing nothing has been forgotten, can truly relax.  

 

Your willpower is a finite resource, and your decision-making ability fluctuates. If you recognise this and structure your day accordingly you give yourself some chance of being the architects of your life. If not, you become a collection of poor, spontaneous decisions with no consideration given to the bigger picture. 

It's impossible to maximise your willpower for every moment of every day; it is possible to make a few changes to your day and your routine so that you can get the most out of your decisions and make consistent progress on the things that are important to you.

In the modern day, whether it’s what TV channel to watch, what music to listen to, what brand of T-shirt to buy, it is no exaggeration to say that, the choices are endless. A marketplace of options and all of them wearing us down. All offering something better, easier, cheaper, faster, more convenient, or just looking to be the shoulder we cry on when our willpower crumbles. It only gets harder to keep your eyes on the prize.

The good news is that as we exercise our willpower, as with our muscles, it gets stronger, and we get better at it.

Through adequate sleep, good nutrition and exercise we give ourselves a head start. But none of them are yet to just magically happen. 

References

John Tierney, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Further reading

http://www.spring.org.uk/2013/11/people-are-more-moral-in-the-morning.

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