Infinite Willpower?

How much willpower do you have? How does willpower even work? And is it important?

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[thNite]

I like "victorious" cycle as the opposite of a "vicious" cycle. I'd always heard "virtuous" cycle, but that's got moral judgement vibes that always trip me up

[gmg]

I couldn’t even gather the willpower to drive to a concert with some of my coworkers

[chocfudgebrowni]

Maybe it's like making the long term planning goals give you short term wins? Kind of how duolingo gamefies learning a language so you get the "dopamine hit" with winning a round or climbing up the leaderboard?

[TheRandomzcookie]

always love these types of videos of yours-- the ones that focus on self improvement. there's never any self help bs; never any pretending that you have all-encompassing answers that will work for everyone: just earnest exploration of the ways our mind works and a hope that it will be useful to learn about it. so, thanks for the good vid!

[zachonias]

This lines up with my experience, awesome summary. I think in terms of developing positive habits, you can have huge short term impact but in the long term you build your baseline of long term focused actions slowly.

[jomo]

2:58 - I was, *quite literally*, eating cheesecake at 12.35am as I watched this. I feel very seen / attacked!

[LeoStaley]

Title is better without the full question, just the question of the possibility, "infinite willpower?" Asking the full question, I am tempted to just answer No, and keep scrolling.

[AntonWongVideo]

I needed the willpower to get work done...and then I saw this video in my subscriptions feed...

[AUnicorn]

"the brain chemistry of someone who is in distress is different from someone who does what they do normally"

me: *distressed by that and gets distressed by my distress*

[LeoStaley]

Oh man holy shit. I am resisting watching the rest of this video because of the significant positive change that I am detecting it may have on my behavior. WTF??

[TerriMRoberts]

Great video, Travis!! SO glad you used fitness an example for this. Will power always seems to get the credit/blame in the fitness world, and you're totally right that there's so much more to it than that.

[LeoStaley]

Much better thumbnail than just a few minutes ago. That infinite willpower thing got me, and you need to put that shit in the title.

[plantycassy]

I’ve never given this much thought before! Super interesting

[metalheadjakob]

Loved the video. Thank you for making it.

[TheMisteracdc]

Very informative as always, dude! I'm a viewer from Brazil! How can I join your discord group??

[Nashy]

I think it might be more than one thing, because it's exhausting to figure out new things all the time and it's also a lot of work to get your brain ready with all the ideas it needs to make long term decisions. If you have a goal that you can work towards by doing the same thing (or a simple decision tree) over and over, you can do that almost 24/7 though.

[lynxcool]

That's an interesting way to see motivation and will power (I'm assuming they're the same thing in this context)

Maybe sprinkling some short term goals/rewards along our long term routine is the best way to stay consistant at it.

[AUnicorn]

YOU ARE DOING MY CODING YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY

[andersonneil]

One thing I found in my own research on the subject is that dopamine is how your brain creates motivation. There isn't a limit to dopamine, you can't run out, but you can become accustomed to certain levels. Things that spike your dopamine higher can cause you to feel less motivated to do simpler things like reading or eating better. Things that spike your dopamine are foods with high fats, sugars and salts; videogames, especially ones with consistent rewards and gambling mechanics; gambling; porn; and social media.

A good way to get to a healthier level is to take a break from that stuff every once in a while. Instead hang out with friends, read, take a walk. Get outside and chill for a day. Most people do this naturally, but it's important to remember to leave your phone alone during this time except maybe to talk to someone, listen to a book, podcast or music, just stay away from things with random and quick effects for a few hours when you want.

Personally I found that I need a bit more than just few hours from videogames in particular, it's effecting my personal life. But that's not everyone, so it's ok if you don't quit all entertainment tomorrow

[laxrox]

interesting bit about the brain calories...i remember reading an article about chess players needing to eat a lot during tournaments to keep from wasting away, but it wasn't a study. i wonder if there's something else going on in their bodies or brain metabolism is different at extremes