What Is Your Default Setting?

I’m reading the book, ‘The One Thing,’ by Gary Keller, and there is a chapter titled Willpower is Always on Will-Call.  There is a common saying that goes – where there’s a will, there’s a way, and in this chapter, Keller talks about how misleading that saying is and how misleading common perception of will-power is as well. 

Keller calls will-power a renewable energy source, and that will-power is usable and rechargeable, much like a cell-phone battery or the gas in your car.  He references university studies, such as ‘TheMarshmallow Test’ by Walter Mischel, the ‘Heart and Mind in Conflict’ experiment by Baba Shiv, and a study on the impact on willpower on the Israeliparole system.  He uses these studies to show the effects of will-power and how to effectively use it.

While studies have shown how effective will-power can be, studies have also shown that we all have a limited amount of will-power, and that when we use it up, we revert to ‘default mode.’  The most effective way to use your will-power is to do the important things, The One Thing, first in the day before you waste your will-power on something else; something less important.  He also shows how your diet can affect your will-power; simply drinking a glass of Kool-Aid lemonade sweetened with real sugar can make you more effective than a placebo.

Knowing that will-power is not always there and that you need to manage your will-power like you manage your diet, your cell-phone battery, or your gas tank will allow you to use your will-power much more effectively.