EP 204: Reader Question – Why doesn’t willpower always work?

This Naked Mind Podcast

Annie Grace

Mental Health, Education, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2019

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sometimes when offered a drink, it’s an easy “no thank you”. Other times, it’s almost impossible to say no. Why is it that sometimes we’re okay and other times it’s such a struggle? Annie Grace dives into the world of willpower and shares research information and tips to help us understand this conundrum.

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Episode Links:

Little Book of Big Change by Dr Amy Johnson

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without
0:15.2	judgment, pain or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.
0:20.2	And today I have a question from Mike. Mike says, Annie, sometimes it's really easy for me
0:33.1	to turn down a drink and sometimes it is almost impossible. And it doesn't seem like things
0:38.4	are different too much from time to time. It's just sometimes I feel strong in my resolve
0:43.7	and sometimes I feel extremely weak. What gives? This is such a good question, Mike. And I think that,
0:50.8	you know, it kind of, there's a few things going on here, but a lot of it stems from the fact that
0:57.2	recent studies show that willpower, which is what you need to turn down a drink actually functions
1:02.0	more like a muscle. And it can get fatigued. So if you've used your willpower on something else,
1:07.5	so say you had a really hard day at work and you used your willpower to just power through the
1:11.7	day or you were really bored at a meeting and you used your willpower to pay attention when you
1:15.8	didn't want to be paying attention or, you know, your children were really acting up and you used your
1:20.2	willpower to exercise patience with them when you wanted to just kind of get frustrated.
1:26.0	Then your willpower reserves have actually been depleted. So willpower, it's just not reliable.
1:32.4	It can act some days more or less depending on what else you have going on. And there's all
1:38.0	sorts of great sort of scientific studies to show this. And so it's really interesting because
1:43.6	I believe that willpower probably isn't then the answer. And like I say in my book,
1:48.5	you sort of have to make it so that you aren't sitting there denying a drink and really using
1:54.5	your willpower to exercise it. As much as you've changed your mindset around it so that you didn't
2:01.2	want the drink in the first place, that you no longer believe that it's going to reduce your stress.
2:06.4	You actually believe that it's going to increase your stress over time. It may not be the symptoms,
2:10.3	but it's not going to reduce your stress long term. So actually changing your mindset is a much
	...

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