How willpower can kill you

Self control sucks too

I don’t put much store in self-control. Much like willpower, it seems to be a pretty limited resource.

I’ve been on a million diets (that’s an exaggeration it’s probably been only a few hundred thousand.) Diets require willpower and self-discipline. The extremely high failure rate is a clue to how well they work.

This isn’t an article about dieting. That’s a huge subject above my pay grade.

The failure of willpower

So there needs to be another way to tackle the problem of how to improve yourself in directions you want to go. So many things that make you live longer and feel better (eventually) are unpleasant in the in the moment.

I had a recent conversation with a teenager. (Teenagers talk to me. It’s more of a gift than an accomplishment.) She came over to make a stuffed toy out of a sock — it’s a Pinterest thing, you wouldn’t understand. Anyway, while she was snipping, shaping and stitching, she wondered how anybody would have the patience to make an entire quilt.

I explained the concept of “flow” and how good that feels.

She responded with something along the lines of “I just wouldn’t have the patience for it. It sounds boring.”