True Grit:How to Succeed

When WillPower Fails

Don’t Eat the Marshmallow

• 1960s - Walter Mischel

• Group of 4 year olds

• Brought into room to make a deal

Irresistible?

• If they could resist for 15 minutes… Double

• Results?

• Only 1 in 3 children lasted the full 15 minutes

• Average was only 5 minutes

Purpose • The experiment’s initial purpose : How to resist

temp.

• Results: They Distracted Themselves

Some thought of it as a picture

Some focused on aspects (ex: looks like a cloud)

Some simply looked away

As the years went by…

• Followed up with participants

• First by simply asking his own kids (in school with them)

• A larger pattern began taking shape

• Nothing short of amazing

The Importance of willpower

• Better willpower at 4 = better grades/ test scores

• Full 15 minutes:

Average 210 points higher on SATs

More popular with peers and teachers

Less trouble in school

Earn higher salaries

Less problems with drugs/alchohol

Lower BMI

BUT WHAT IS WILLPOWER AND HOW CAN WE STRENGTHEN IT?

Some Principles of WillPower

1. WillPower is like a muscle

Can exhaust it - (when do most people cheat on diets)

Can strengthen it over time

2. WillPower is Finite

Radishes vs. Cookies

Resist the cookies = Less Grit

Principles of WillPower

3. EGO DEPLETION

WillPower has four forms and using one depletes the other

It doesn’t matter how you’re applying self-control to your emotions: if you are using self-control, then you are depleting your supply of willpower.

Ego Depletion 2• Experiment 1: a group of strangers met, got to know each

other and then were separated.

• Either picked by all all or none (not true)

• Then have to take an IQ and reasoning test

• Expected = aggression scores increased in the rejected groups,

• Unexpectedly, the IQ scores dropped immediately by about 25 percent.

• Analytical reasoning scores dropped by 30 percent

Principles of WillPower• 4 broad categories of willpower:

• control thoughts (e.g. ignore something, think about nothing while meditating, etc)

• control emotions (e.g. escape a bad mood)

• impulse control (e.g. resisting a candy bar or alcoholic drink that’s in front of you, or some other temptation)

• performance control (e.g. managing your effort, time, speed and accuracy, etc)

Decision Fatigue• 4. Making choices is exhausting.

• Researchers did an experiment where they showed college students a various assortment of trinkets.

• One group of students was asked to think about which trinket they wanted.

• The other group was asked to make a series of choices between pairs of trinkets (“would you rather have the candle or the toothbrush?”, “The brown candle or the red candle?”, etc).

• After - hold their hand in ice cold water for as long as possible

Glucose fuels Willpower

• Glucose = fuel

• Sugary foods provide quick hit, but slow burning sources better

Hardwired For Success

• When Scientists Studied the Brains of Athlete Athletes they noticed something surprising….

• Hypothesis: Brain Activity would be elevated during game

• Instead….

Plummeted

• Brain activity actually plummeted.

• Much less activity than amateur players

• Why?

Our Brain

• “The brain is constantly trying to automate processes, thereby dispelling them from consciousness; in this way its work will be completed faster, more effectively, and at a lower metabolic level. Consciousness, on the other hand, is slow, subject to error, and expensive.”

• Gerhard Roth, Neuroscientist

Automate

• The Human Brain hardwires everything it can

• Designed to make everything automatic

• Frees up room for high stakes decision making

How much is automated?

• How much of your behavior do you think is unconscious? How much is done without a concentrated effort?

The 95 %• Cognitive neuroscientists estimate it at 95%

• Most of decisions, actions, emotions and behavior goes beyond our conscious awareness

• About 40 % of what we do each day are habits

• Our brain weighs 2% of total weight but actually burns 20% of calories and energy

• Our Brain is designed to save us from thinking

Who Brushed Their Teeth This Morning ?

• WWII = “National Security Crisis.”

• Pepsodent - Claude Hopkins

• “Film. A Dangerous Coating that Robs Teeth of Whiteness.” (Cue)

• So to get rid of film… Brush Your Teeth (Routine)

• Tingly Feeling (Reward)

Habits… Not WillPower• Duckworth - 2015 (yes the Grit Lady)

• 6 Studies

• In Study 1, habits for eating healthy snacks, exercising, and getting consistent sleep -increased automaticity and lower reported effortful inhibition in enacting those behaviors.

• Studies 2 and 3, study habits - motivational interference during a work–leisure conflict and on greater ability to study even under difficult circumstances.

• In Study 4, homework habits effect of self-control on classroom engagement and homework completion.

• Study 5 was a prospective longitudinal study of teenage youth who participated in a 5-day meditation retreat. Habits mediated the effect of self-control on successfully accomplishing meditation practice goals.

• Finally, in Study 6, habits on homework completion and 2 objectively measured long-term academic outcomes: grade point average and first-year college persistence.

Habits not Inhibition

• Results suggest that beneficial habits—perhaps more so than effortful inhibition—are an important factor linking self-control with positive life outcomes.

All Habits Follow This loop

• MIT Scientists discovered the Habit Loop with Mice in Maze

• First few times brain activity went through the roof as they the mouse tried to get to end

• Then Brain activity slowed

Bad Habits (Read Behaviors)

Everything a child does serves a purpose

There is a payoff

A payoff = getting what you wantNo payoff = not getting what you want

How to Build Habits

THE FRAMEWORK:

• Identify the routine

• Experiment with rewards

• Isolate the cue

• Have a plan

Step 1:

• 1) Identify the routine.

• Calling out in class

Step 2:Experiment with

Rewards• 2) Experiment with different rewards. Rewards

satisfy cravings.

• But the tricky part is that we are often not conscious of the cravings that drive our behaviors.

• This is why asking students “why” they did something is often fruitless

Behavioral Rewards

Because it feels good (Sensory)Candy…. Yeah Dopamine!

To get out of something (Escape)Think of a student who doesn't like a subject

To get attention (Attention)Calling out in class… Being defiant in front of friends

To get something (Tangible)A grade

Step 3: Isolate the Cue

• 3) Isolate the cue.

Step 4: Have a Plan

• 4) Have a plan. Decide exactly what you will do when the craving hits then follow your plan.

Tool to Use

• Routine: Quietly beginning warm-up

• Cue: Walking in the door

• Reward: Positive Feedback from Teacher / Positive Points etc.

• The key to this is: Rewards are only necessary until the routine becomes automatic.

Tools to Use: WOOP

• Wish

• Outcome

• Obstacle (Identify the Habit Loop here)

• Plan - Plan to overcome the inflection point

• Publicly Declare Goal - New Years Habits

• Track progress

• tracking bad habits (ex: calling out in class) reduces

• Find Small Wins and Reinforce them