What Is Willpower And How Can You Increase It?

Willpower is the ability to make choices that will benefit you and your goals in the future— particularly when this involves rejecting options that may seem more attractive in the moment. It can be key to building healthy habits and achieving what you want for yourself long-term. Although it’s not always easy to exercise willpower, there are some strategies you can use to increase your abilities in this area.

What is willpower?

Being able to exercise willpower can help an individual achieve their goals, from choosing nutritious foods to promote overall health to focusing on their studies to earn a degree. 

Factors that can affect willpower

Although it can be linked to a healthier and more satisfying life, acting with willpower isn’t always easy. Even in the best of times, it can often be difficult to look past temptations in the moment and make the healthier or wiser choice. Plus, certain conditions and situations can make exercising willpower additionally challenging. For example, consider the theory of ego depletion. It posits that actions and decisions all use mental energy—and that using up that energy (such as by making back-to-back decisions or many decisions in a day) can result in being low on willpower until we’re able to recharge.

Stress can also deplete our willpower. This is because the emotions and physical reactions related to stress may make us turn our focus to anything that will make us feel better in the moment. Stress-eating is an example of behavior a person may engage in when they feel depleted by stress, which may not align with their longer-term goals but can be hard to resist in the moment. 

It’s also worth noting that some mental health conditions or forms of neurodivergence that can manifest as impulsivity may also make willpower more difficult, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD symptoms are not simply a matter of willpower and instead are thought to result from structural and chemical differences in the brain. However, they can still sometimes make it more difficult to avoid temptations or distractions in favor of longer-term goals—particularly without the right coping strategies in place. Regardless of the cause of trouble with willpower or managing impulses, which everyone will experience from time to time, it can be possible to increase this ability with the strategies listed below.

Tips for increasing willpower

Below are some useful tips that can potentially help you increase your willpower.

Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness is about learning to cultivate a nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. Putting worries and thoughts of the future aside and trying to focus on the here and now can require considerable willpower, and practicing it regularly can improve your overall self-discipline. Research suggests that mindfulness meditation may be an effective way to increase willpower.

Manage stress

Again, since stress levels can contribute to decreased willpower, managing stress can be helpful in increasing your levels of self-discipline. Examples of tactics that may help you reduce stress include leaning on social support, practicing gratitude, and spending time in nature.

Get enough sleep

Not getting enough quality rest can affect how the body and brain use energy, which may cause the parts of the brain responsible for helping us make good decisions to be impaired. That’s why aiming to get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night may help with willpower.

Eat nutritious foods

Our eating habits can also affect how much energy is available for brain functions like impulse control. Getting enough calories and eating nutrient-dense foods as often as possible can help ensure the brain has enough fuel to exercise willpower.

Create an environment conducive to willpower

While not always possible, it can also be helpful to adjust your environment to support your longer-term goals. Eliminating or reducing distractions or temptations and making it easier to choose positive options can be helpful, such as meal prepping to promote healthier eating or putting your phone in another room when you’re trying to get work done.

Working on willpower in therapy

It may also benefit your willpower abilities to work with a therapist. They can help you understand the deeper motivations for your choices and behaviors and discover strategies for making healthy decisions that work for you. If you know or suspect your willpower may be impacted by a mental health condition or a form of neurodivergence, they can also help you address this. 

Attending regular in-person therapy sessions can be difficult for some people, whether because they have a busy schedule, a disability that makes travel difficult, or trouble gathering the willpower to find a provider and commute to the office each time. In cases like these, online therapy can represent a more convenient option. With a platform like BetterHelp, you can get matched with a licensed therapist you can meet with from the comfort of home via phone or video chat. Research suggests that online treatment can be as effective as in-person sessions in many cases.