Willpower for the New Year;

The holidays bring lots of wonderful things, time with loved ones, maybe a few days off or even some new equipment! But those benefits are counterbalanced with potholes on the road to a successful season; there’s heavy meal after heavy meal, desserts lining every coffee table, and the weather turns sour and the days get short, challenging every rider to squeeze in training. Luckily, no one is racing, and so if your fitness takes a dip in December, no big deal. But come January, cyclists (and nearly everyone else), comes up with lofty new year’s resolutions and redoubles their efforts to lose weight and be more active.

Funny thing is we all know this doesn’t work. 80% of people have given up on their resolution by February, and worse holiday sloth and weight gain put a damper on performance for months until training outside is viable again. So what is one to do to stay on track through the holiday?

When most people read the article above stating how most resolutions fail after only a few weeks, they think, “Oh, that won’t be me. I have better willpower than that.” Most folks are aware of the famous marshmallow study, where researchers found that children capable of delaying gratification were more successful in life than their hungry peers. We know willpower matters, and have a handful of strategies to manage temptation. So when planning new years resolutions, individuals try to motivate themselves to restrain from their temptations. They work hard on avoidance of their temptations.

This plan works for a while but eventually, everyone learns a terrible truth. You have willpower, but not not enough and not all the time. Your willpower, on any given day, is a limited resource. It’s not something you can call on again and again without worry, quite the opposite in fact. Willpower is like a fire extinguisher that you fill each morning, and carry with you through the day. The temptations are little fires, which you can extinguish, but if that fire lights later, you won’t have anything left in the extinguisher and that temptation may get out of control!

There are things you can do to find more willpower. Taking a nap, reducing your workload, meditation and exercise can help you find more, but it’s important to recognize the very real limitations of willpower when making training plans. Little decisions, even ones we make routinely, have a dramatic impact on willpower. Studies have found that basic memory tasks make people more likely to cave to chocolate cake rather than having a healthy fruit snack. If you’re struggling to hit workout goals, writing down notes instead of trying to remember them could be the difference in finding the willpower to complete a workout later in the day.

Don’t overestimate your willpower when planning for the new year. Instead of planning to be a monk in a week, capable of forgoing every worldly delight in the pursuit of your goals, plan smarter. Treat your willpower like a cell phone battery each day. If you were worried about it dying, you might change your plans and make important calls early in the day. You may rearrange your schedule to complete tasks that require the cell phone first. Treat your willpower the same, and you’re much more likely to stick to your goals.

The next few days, I’ll be posting some more strategies for improving outcomes for new years resolutions, and about willpower more generally. Check back tomorrow for more!