Your enthusiasm knows no bounds. It is the first morning of the new start; a new diet, a new health habit, a new regular practice regime to develop your golf. You are off to a flying start and think “this is going to be a walk in the park!” The second day is a little bit tougher and by the third day your level of discipline and control has begun to wane. Sound familiar?
On the fourth day you succumb to the very food temptation you have been avoiding, you can’t be bothered with your new health plan and you didn’t practice very well the previous day so you can’t see the point of practicing today…so you don’t. Your walk in the park has fallen flat on its face. You seem to have run out of discipline, or self-control energy, if there is such a thing. It seems there is…
Research by Muraven and Baumeister (2000) indicates that we do indeed have a reserve of this type of energy. We use up the energy when we face acts of self control and self discipline. This is anything we know is good for us but is something we would prefer not to do. Each time we do something which requires self control we partially deplete this limited energy reserve. The greater the temptation to succumb to the urge you are trying to prevent, the faster this reserve is depleted.
When you train muscles, they tire, recover and become stronger. The ideal training increases load gradually. The good news is that this reserve is analogous to muscle and can be developed.
If you are looking to begin running as a means to regain lost fitness you wouldn’t head out for a 10km run on the first day, more likely a 2km run and walk, or even just a walk. You would gradually build your stamina reserves and muscle conditioning.
If you are looking to build a golf practice regime, begin small. This could mean hitting 25 range balls three times a week. Chances are you will probably feel like hitting more anyway.
If you want to develop your reserves of self-control in any other way, begin small. One of the great benefits of developing this self-control ‘muscle’ is that as you do so it positively affects other areas of your life. It becomes easier to do the things that you know will benefit you.
If regular exercise is one of the habits you would like to develop then there is even more good news. Studies by Oaten and Cheng (2006) found that people who developed the habit of regular exercise also reported “significant decrease in perceived stress, emotional distress, smoking, alcohol and caffeine consumption, and an increase in healthy eating, emotional control, maintenance of household chores, attendance to commitments, monitoring of spending and an improvement in study habits”.
If you are planning to set some New Year’s resolutions, ensure they aren’t too grand, unless you have a well-developed self-control reserve. Otherwise choose something small and build from there.
References:
Muraven, M. & Baumeister, R. (2000). Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: Does self-control resemble a muscle? Psychological Bulletin, 126, 247–259.
Oaten, M. and Cheng, K. (2006) Longitudinal gains in self-regulation from regular physical exercise. British Journal of Health Psychology (2006), 11, 717-733