1 Thing Smart People Do to Boost Their Willpower, Determination, and Odds of Success

1 Thing Smart People Do to Boost Their Willpower, Determination, and Odds of Success

As I’ve said MANY TIMES before … achieving happiness requires little more than practising a few simple disciplines each and every day.

Some might call this “discipline” or “willpower” or just plain habits.

Whatever you call it, if you want to enjoy happiness and success, you could almost certainly benefit from attending to this one thing …

via Inc.com by Jeff Haden

Achieving any challenging long-term goal requires perseverance. Determination. Staying the course.

Obvious? Absolutely. But no less true. 

So what makes people stop? And more to the point, why are you sometimes able to tap into considerable stores of determination and willpower, while at other times, you’re not?

That’s a question researchers at the University of Bologna set out to answer. Participants were split into two groups. People in one group spent 90 minutes working on a difficult computer task that required significant cognitive effort. Those in the other group spent the time watching a documentary about cars and trains, a task that required no mental effort (other than possibly trying to stay awake).

Then both groups were hooked up to cardio monitors, put on exercise bikes, and told to pedal as fast as they could until unable to continue as the resistance steadily increased. Participants were asked at regular intervals during the test to rate how hard they were working. Then, during another session, the groups were flipped, with those who watched the (boring) documentary performing the complex computer task while the other group watched the movie.

What happened? People who first spent 90 minutes on the difficult cognitive task quit much sooner than when they did not. They also rated their perceived effort as much higher during the test, even though their bodies were performing at the same level.

Bottom line: Even though the pre-effort, and subsequent effect, was all mental, their physical performance was still dramatically impacted. Intuitively, that makes sense. Determination, willpower, and perseverance are mental attributes, not physical. Granted, when you’re physically tired it’s hard to stay the mental course. 

But it’s also hard to stay the physical — and determination and perseverance — course when you are mentally tired…

… keep reading the full & original article HERE