When your fingers are itching to open WhatsApp or Instagram, why is it so hard to resist? Why can’t you break distractions through sheer willpower?
Here is why:
1. Willpower is like a muscle — the more you use it, the more tired you get. So if someone resists temptations the whole day, by evening, they are like a dam waiting to burst. And once willpower breaks, people indulge without any restraint (e.g., finishing off half a tub of ice cream).
2. Habitual actions are like automatic algorithms stored in your brain that get activated by triggers such as boredom or anxiety.
Once a habit is triggered, the action is taken even before your thinking brain (the prefrontal cortex) realizes what’s going on. So there is little opportunity to apply a brake.
3. Some scientists believe that we may not have as much willpower as we like to imagine — our craving mind is much stronger.
What is required is breaking those habit patterns by counter-programming the mind and breaking the habit loops.
When it comes to breaking habits, I have heard well-meaning people say, “Just don’t do it.”
I wish it was that easy.
– Rajan