The second principle in my willpower series states: You can teach yourself discipline when you Understand What's Important! Do you sometimes tell yourself "It's (whatever it is) not that important"? A Siren Call of Weakness It's not that serious. There's no need to worry about it. You shouldn't take life so seriously. You should enjoy yourself and be happy. You only live once. These statements contain good advice—if used in proper context. However, if you tell them to … [Read more...]
Willpower Fatigue Impairs Athletic Performance
Ego depletion is the theory that your willpower is a limited global resource that can be temporarily depleted. For example, when you must control your anger at incompetent drivers on your way to the gym, you'll have less willpower to hit the weights hard. I've recently discussed new scientific evidence that did not support this theory. However, just as recently, Englert (2016) has reviewed the relevant studies that were published over the past six years—again highly supportive of the ego … [Read more...]
How to Alleviate Stress: Physical Exercise vs. Biofeedback vs. Meditation
How to alleviate stress: If you want to reduce stress and anxiety, should you rather be more physically active, practice meditation, or use a biofeedback device? (If you want to learn about emotion regulation in general, check out this article! I've also discussed how biofeedback enhances sports performance here.) Van der Zwan and her colleagues in Amsterdam tackled this question in 2015 with a controlled intervention study. 76 participants kept up their daily home exercise for 5 weeks, … [Read more...]
YouTube Addiction: How to Control It
Even though I have never been a hardcore YouTube addict, I would often lose myself in the endless sea of entertainment where every ounce of water is a new video, and the shore far away. Sure, I will make it to the shore, but it requires a lot of swimming on my part—a lot of watching "just this one last video." Today, I am in firm control of my YouTube consumption, and I can assure you from my personal experience that there are addictions, even behavioral ones, that are harder to get rid of. … [Read more...]
How to Have Freedom Without Free Will
I know, there's a lot of buzz about "free will" in science and philosophy. I've studied both and all I can say is that the entire debate is ridiculous—nothing but an intellectual's chance to act out his desire for public mental masturbation. Sure, freedom exists, and sure, everyone has a will. But putting these two concepts together doesn't make any sense. As Schopenhauer said, "Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills." That's all there is to it. The whole debate should've … [Read more...]