I just read a fascinating book called Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by research psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and science writer John Tierney.

The book starts off with the story of the marshmallow study that was done in the 1960's by psychologist Walter Mischel. He studied the willpower of preschoolers by offering them a choice; they could have one marshmallow now or two if they waited fifteen minutes. Fifteen years later, the preschoolers who had the willpower to wait for two marshmallows were proved to be more successful in all areas of their lives. Their stress levels were lower; they had more friends, were happier, did not abuse drugs and made more money than those who did not use the willpower needed to wait fifteen minutes for two marshmallows.

Intelligence and willpower are the most important indicators for success and happiness later in life. Since I can't do much about my intelligence, I needed answers about willpower:

1. Is it possible to increase my own willpower?
2. If so, how do I do it?

According to Baumeister you can indeed increase you own willpower because it works like a muscle, the more you use it, the more you have. For example: if you use will power on just one aspect of your life like getting up in the morning for gym (even during the cold winter months) you will reap the benefits in all areas of your life. This will effectively grow your willpower, leaving you with more to handle other things.}

Your willpower also needs glucose. As your blood sugar levels drop, so will your willpower. So make sure that you take on significant tasks with a full stomach. This is one of the main reasons diets don’t work, as the hungrier the person gets the weaker their willpower will be, in turn causing them to cheat. This in turn results in their self-confidence dropping and them cheating further.  According to Baumeister, judges are 70% more willing to grant parole in the morning than in the afternoon. So, next time you apply for parole make sure to do it early in the day.

You have a limited amount of willpower per day and it will be stronger in the morning.  Plan your most important tasks to be completed in the morning. Enough sleep and rest also plays a role in how much willpower you have.

Decision making eats away at your willpower so don't wear out your clients with too many choices. For example: People who bought new BMWs had over two hundred decisions to make such as  colour, wheels, tyres, upholstery etc. At the end of it all they were so exhausted that they didn’t have the willpower to go through with a sale.

The most useful take away I got from the book was how successful people use their willpower; they use it to modify negative habits and to develop new positive habits. This means that they get a compound benefit from that will power. In my next article I will take a closer look at habits and how they work.

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