Willpower is over-rated

Change your environment, rather than yourself

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to admit that willpower is overrated, so
design your environment for success instead. It's easy to intend

(00:24):
to have just a few oreos and then finish off
a whole row. You can promise yourself that you won't
hit snooze before you go to bed, but have a
different perspective. At six am. You can go into the
bookstore just to browse and end up buying an armload
of books. It happens to all of us, so don't
feel bad about yourself. While self awareness and self regulation

(00:47):
are great, exercising willpower is really hard. So rather than
relying on willpower too often, when you can change your
environment so you can make great choices f it lessly.
It can look something like this. If you have trouble
not eating the whole bag of Doritos or the whole
pint of Ben and Jerry's, by a single size bag

(01:09):
of chips or a four ounce container of ice cream instead,
then you can enjoy your treat without needing to tear
yourself away. Will you pay more per ounce for a
single serving container than you would for the full size. Well, sure,
but you're avoiding an internal conflict between your urge to
devour every bite and your intention to eat a small
portion that's worth a dollar or two. And hey, if

(01:31):
you would have eaten the whole point of Ben and Jerry's, well,
the four ounce container costs less, so you're saving money
after all. As for the temptation to hit snooze, put
your alarm clock far away from your bed. That way,
you have to get out of bed to turn it
off when it's dawn and the alarm is blasting from
ten feet away. It doesn't take willpower to get out
of bed, just a desire for quiet, and once you're up,

(01:55):
it's easier to stay up. If you want to browse,
but not by le your credit card at home or
in the car, or bring only as much cash as
you're okay with spending. This is especially helpful for places
like farmers markets or craft fares. Or you see so
many beautiful things and want to buy them all, but really,

(02:15):
how much produce does your family eat? And how many
people on your Christmas list need a pottery bowl or
a handwoven scarf. Designing your environment can help you avoid
things you don't want to do, and also help you
to do things that you do want to do. Want
to get more exercise, don't buy a permit for the
garage closest to your office. Instead, make it your norm

(02:37):
to park in a lot half a mile away. That's
a mile of walking every work day. If it's storming
or you're running late, you can pay extra to park
in the garage, but by making walking the default, you
get more steps. If you want to do more focused work,
close your email and text message apps and turn off
all notifications. Now you don't need the discipline to delay

(03:00):
reading messages because guess what, you don't even know they're there.
Instead of relying on willpower, reduce the temptations that your
future self will encounter. Make good behavior easy. If you do,
leading the life you want will take less effort and
be a lot more likely. In the meantime, this is Laura.

(03:24):
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the number four. Then

(03:48):
Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot
com that before Breakfast is spelled out with all the
letters thank so much. I look forward to staying in touch.
Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For

(04:10):
more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.