Comments on: Self-Discipline: Willpower

By: Dawn TenBrink

Dawn TenBrink — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:28:08 +0000

I can’t stay on a diet and I don’t stick to my exercise program that I say I’m gona do at the beginning of every week.

By: dallas

dallas — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 09:36:25 +0000

I think what we do determined by our environment. In a research whereby advertisments of an ice-cream product was played at a very fast speed in the cinema, the result show a 60% rise of people leaving the thetre during the movie to buy ice-cream. When these people were asked why they did so, they said it is because they wanted to. There is this thing called the subconscious which far out weighs our willpower and I think the so-called willpower is not influenced by your personal choice but by the environment around you.

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 01:00:09 +0000

@Chris: If it really is a temptation, then willpower is required. But temptation is in the eye of the beholder. It’s easy for me to say no to alcohol, for instance, because it isn’t a temptation to me. Saying no is just a habit.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 00:35:12 +0000

Steve

I don’t necessarily disagree with your explanation of willpower being a short term boost, but what about those people we all respect who continuously turn away from temptation? I have witnessed quite a few people who always say no to say snacks being offered around, alcoholic drinks in excess, etc. They seem to have long term willpower of sorts.

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 00:00:04 +0000

@Kishore:
I often write posts in batches and set them to appear throughout the week. I’ve already written the entire 6-part series on self-discipline and set a new post to go live each day at 3:00am. I find the bulk of this blog’s RSS subscribers check their feeds in the morning, so I figured this would be a good time to have them appear.

At 3:00am I am sound asleep, but my blog is working.

By: Kishore Balakrishnan

Kishore Balakrishnan — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 23:53:33 +0000

Dear Steve,

At the end of the post is stated “… This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 at 3:00 am and is filed under Self-Discipline…”

3:00 am ? – True ?

Or is the option in WordPress “Times in the weblog should differ by:” not setup yet ?

Cheers, Kishore.

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 23:33:43 +0000

@Jethro: Nope, no all-nighters.

By: Elaine

Elaine — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 22:42:04 +0000

As always, thank you for clarifying a key, yet misunderstood, human drive. Your Web site is amazing, and I’m looking forward to the book.

By: Jethro

Jethro — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 18:58:24 +0000

I pressed submit to soon…

Steve do you ever do all-night writing sessions for your book? Or do you try to stick with your original 4 hours a day, no more, no less?

By: Jethro

Jethro — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 18:56:31 +0000

Thanks Steve! After reading your view on willpower, I don’t think I have to give up the all-nighters I sometimes like to do.

I thought I’d have to give that up because I thought it was inefficient to stay up all night working till dawn since I obviously couldn’t do that day-after-day, week-after-week. But at times I think working-till-dawn is a lot more productive than having to stop and start something each and every day. Sometimes it’s best to just get something done in one single and focused attack.

So I suppose all-nighters would be ok to keep doing, just as long as they are planned for in advance. As opposed to doing an all-nighter because of some unplanned deadline the next morning or lack of preparation.