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Young Adults: How to Exercise your Willpower Muscle!

The greatest challenge many college students face doesn’t have to do with mastering course material, it has to do with managing life.  Once a college student leaves home, the predictable structure of life with mom and dad disappears.  The student is suddenly faced with a litany of demands, responsibilities and temptations that can seem overwhelming. This can be particularly true of young adults who have struggled with emotional issues, addictions, eating disorders or other compulsive behaviors.

Dr. Kelly McGongal, a health psychologist and Stanford University instructor, teaches students specific strategies for strengthening willpower so that the competing demands for our attention can be tamed.   According to a recent article by Marina Krakovsky in Stanford Magazine, “All About Willpower: Why it’s not enough to just say no,” McGongal helps students with everything from resisting chocolate to procrastination.

McGongal suggests several tactics to college students hoping to strengthen their willpower muscles to achieve more and stress less:

PICK YOUR PEERS: Surround yourself with people with similar goals and values—positive peer support can help you stay disciplined about the right things

TOUGH THINGS ARE FIRST THINGS: Do tougher tasks first to avoid falling prey to fatigue and hunger, which erode self control

THIS TOO SHALL PASS: Remember that cravings and urges will pass if you wait them out—so be patient

DON’T MORALIZE WILLPOWER: Don’t mistake willpower for  moral “goodness” because that only makes lapses in willpower feel more discouraging—like a moral failing

THE WILLPOWER MUSCLE: Using willpower will make you tired at first but stronger over time, so treat it like a muscle–exercise it to make it stronger

BACK ON THAT HORSE:  Don’t quit when you relapse—it’s normal to fail when we’re attempting to change a behavior,  so when you do have a lapse, get up and try again