The difference between willpower and self-discipline and which one to rely on most
#100HABITSIN100DAYS | DAY 21
Tuesday, 10 January 2023
I get weird looks when people see me reading a 700 page book on willpower and self-discipline for fun (even though it also comes in handy for my business, this is the type of stuff that I read on holidays as well).
What can I say, I’m a nerd. I’ve accepted it.
Anyway, it explains the difference between self-discipline and willpower, two terms we often use interchangebly very well.
Willpower is what you use to follow through on your intentions, once you already feel the urge to do something else.
When you smell freshly baked cookies, but are trying to lose weight, you rely on willpower not to eat them.
Self-discipline is about the whole chain of events and circumstances that influences whether you will even be tempted and though it includes willpower, it also contains a lot of other elements.
When you ask your roommate to hide chocolate and only give you 1 piece a day, you rely on self-discipline not to eat more than that one piece.
Willpower is a limited resource.
If you are continually tempted by certain things, you will most likely give in at some point.
On the other hand, self-discipline is a nearly infinite resource.
There’s almost always something extra you can do to avoid or reduce a temptation beforehand or increase your chances of taking a positive action.
This includes everything from priming your mind to designing your environment to creating obstacle battleplans.
That makes self-discipline a far better thing to rely on than willpower.
The less willpower you need throughout your day to follow through on your intentions, the more likely you are to succeed.
Here are my new habit recipes for today (creating these recipes is one way for me to rely more on self-discipline than willpower):
- Habit 36: Daily tickle session for my mom
- Habit 37: Weekly head tickle session for my parents
And, in case you’re curious my challenge progress so far.
Flow or fight?
When you rely on self-discipline you can ride the wave, you align your impulses with your desired actions.
When you rely on willpower you are in a constant struggle to fight your impulses in order to push yourself to follow through on your intetions.
Whenever you want to implement a new habit or get rid of an old one, taking some time to think through how you can avoid tempations and conflicting urges will pay itself back ten fold in the future.
If you have any questions, please let me know or ask them on the live Thursday at 16.30 CET in the Mighty Habits Facebook group.
Update 21/100 complete 💪. Thanks for following along!
Challenge Updates
Intro: Is it possible to build 100 habits in 100 days?
Stats: My challenge progress & success rates so far
Day 1: The habit recipe to kickstart your habits like never before
Day 2: Motivation is not always the problem - Fix this thing first
Day 3: Uncover golden nuggets from the past before designing the future
Day 4: A shocking technique powerful enough to quit smoking in 5 days with a success rate up to 61.4%
Day 5: The single most important thing to boost motivation
Day 6: 5 words to keep in mind when you're struggling with perfectionism
Day 7: The two types of progress and how to combine them for maximum effectiveness
Day 8: Let your brains desires work for you
Day 9: Swap this thought - make failure your friend
Day 10: How to align your habits with your goals so you get the results you want
Day 11: The Fresh Start Effect, and how to use it for habit-building all year long
Day 12: Make it easy for yourself - prepare your habit success
Day 13: Reduce regret - build habits for the things that count
Day 14: A simple technique that makes building habits more fun and effective
Day 15: Minimum Viable Habits - The key to consistency
Day 16: Rule your habits, don't let your habits rule you
Day 17: Another crazy experiment
Day 18: The 'Don't-Break-The-Chain' Myth
Day 19: How better predictions lead to better habits
Day 20: My experiece so far & a useful type of resistence
Day 21: The difference between willpower and self-discipline and which one to rely on most
Day 22: How to use this one piece of habit advice that's extremely effective, but usually hard to implement
Day 23: Motivation is not as unreliable as you might think
Day 24: On falling in love with the process & why I'm tweaking my daily updates
Day 25: A new type of challenge update & something to try for extra focus
Day 26: Curiosity and wonder can help you improve your habit plan
Day 27: Habit bundling - a strategy for when you're short on time
Day 28: Make your habits more enjoyable – use a temptation bundle
Day 29: A way to collect habit ideas for maximum impact
Day 30: The crazy sleeping experiment continued…
Day 31: An easy and affordable way to extract habit ideas
Day 32: Simplify to make room for experimentation
Day 33: Updating routines to make them more effective
Day 34: Obstacle battleplans for sick days
Day 35: Adding another Mighty Habits content habit
Day 36: Figuring out how to keep up with my sleeping schedule while sick
Day 37: Another obstacle battleplan to deal with sickness
Day 38: A tiny update
Day 39: Alternative habits
Day 40: Adding comfort
Day 41: Playing with building a new habit app
Day 42: Increasing the flexibility of my sleeping schedule
Day 43: Working on a new tracking system
Day 44: A perfect day
Day 45: Still working on a new tracking system
Day 46: The first few habit cancellations
Day 47: A festive reason to miss a habit
Day 48: A challenge within a challenge
Day 49: When excitement gets you up at 2.45 AM
Day 50: Deep in launch prep
Day 51: It's almost there
Day 52: The beta memberships are live
Challenge Habits
Habit 1: Post a challenge update in the Mighty Habit FB group every day
Habit 2: Go live every week in the Mighty Habits FB group
Habit 3: Send weekly newsletter that includes challenge update
Habit 4: Plank & ab wheel every day
Habit 5: 30 minute ballet strength training every weekday
Habit 6: Curl my hair twice a week
Habit 7: Paint my nails once a week
Habit 8: Wear jewelry every day
Habit 9: Weigh myself every day
Habit 10: Do a daily 2-minute snack aversion Pavlok session
Habit 11: Update whiteboard with visual progress of Mighty Habits every week
Habit 12: Update whiteboard with progress stats of goals every week
Habit 13: Create progress report of goals every week
Habit 14: Dance around in my room for 2 songs every day
Habit 15: 30 20 minute ballet stretching every weekday
Habit 16: Track & share stretching progress in MFT FB group every weekday
Habit 17: Weekly Daily habit plan check-in
Habit 18: Update challenge stats page daily
Habit 19: Do a monthly review
Habit 20: Take out the trash twice a week
Habit 21: Create monthly ballet progress report
Habit 22: Practice and give massage once a month
Habit 23: Do personal + business finances once a month
Habit 24: Do daily shutdown routine
Habit 25: Monthly call with my friend who’s biking around the world
Habit 26: Tidy my bedroom daily
Habit 27: Clean the kitchen daily
Habit 28: Submit item for promo to Evelyn’s list each week
Habit 29: Read 10 pages a day
Habit 30: Keep my phone upstairs in the evening
Habit 31: Take vitamins daily
Habit 32: Track finances daily
Habit 33: Create overview of non-recurring expenses weekly
Habit 34: Eplilate my legs weekly
Habit 35: Submit one item for feedback every week
Habit 36: Daily tickle session for my mom
Habit 37: Weekly head tickle session for my parents
Habit 38: Film myself doing ballet class and send recording to Isabella each month week
Habit 39: Do one value interview a week
Habit 40: Read one page from the Daily Stoic
Habit 41: Stretch glutes for 2 minutes while brushing my teeth
Habit 42: Balance on one leg while doing tickle sessions
Habit 43: Do 5 roll downs against wall couple of times throughout the day
Habit 44: Do a daily wall squat
Habit 46: Do 5 min of metatarsal exercises a day while waiting
Habit 47: Do 2 min neck stretch daily
Habit 48: Do 10 min of standing glute stretch while checking news/ social media/ mail
Habit 49: Do 10 min of sitting glute stretch while checking news/ social media/ mail
Habit 50: Visualize daily ballet routine & ballet goals
Habit 51: Daily 15 min frog stretch while reading
Habit 52: Monthly photo shoot for social media
Habit 53: Monthly social media photos edit session
Habit 54: Post weekly live with training on Youtube
Habit 55: Get up at 4 AM every day
Habit 56: Go to bed between 10.30 and 11 PM every night
Habit 57: Take two naps every day
Habit 58: Practice ballet choreography 25 min daily
Habit 59: Daily 15 min passive side split stretching
Habit 60: Post 3 one-liner posts in Mighty Habits FB group every week
Habit 61: Post one 'reveal/ where I stand' post in Mighty Habits FB group every week
Habit 62: Post 1 ‘behind-the-scenes/ member-win’ post in the Mighty Habits FB group every week
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