Strategies To Increase Willpower So You Can Achieve Your Goals

As many are aware, willpower—or “the ability to carry out one’s intentions”—is often key to the achievement of one’s goals. It can be considered a part of self-control, or the broader ability to manage one’s behavior and resist temptation with longer-term goals in mind. Here, we’ll give a brief overview of what the research says about willpower and where it comes from. Then, we’ll share a few different techniques you can try to improve your willpower over time so you can increase your likelihood of achieving what you want to.

The basics of willpower, according to research

Although much research has been done over the years into the topic of willpower and self-control, there’s still some disagreement in the psychology community about where exactly these abilities come from and what factors might affect them. Researchers do know that the area of the brain responsible for willpower is the prefrontal cortex, a part that’s associated with decision-making and planning. The question is: What dictates how well this part of the brain is able to function when it comes to managing impulsivity for the sake of longer-term goals?

One of the key debates on this topic is the role an individual’s personal beliefs about willpower may play, if any. It’s been argued that believing your willpower is unlimited may actually help you exert more of it. However, a study from 2022 suggests that if willpower is, as many others suspect, a resource that can be depleted and needs regular replenishing, believing your willpower is infinite may make you ‘spend’ it irresponsibly and have less when you need it. This is an example of the ego depletion theory, which likens willpower and self-control to renewable resources that can temporarily run out if utilized too much in a short period. 

Also consider the interpretation of findings from famous experiments like the Marshmallow Test that have suggested that willpower is innate and fixed. On the other hand, a more recent analysis of its findings indicates that the significant factors—such as socioeconomic status as it relates to health and career outcomes—were ignored, potentially rendering the study’s conclusions baseless. Today, other research theorizes that as much as 60% of willpower is inherited, suggesting that personal efforts to improve this measure can be effective but may only go so far.

Tips for increasing your willpower

You might have heard willpower mentioned in reference to building healthy habits, such as exercising or smoking cessation, but this measure can also be helpful if you’re trying to accomplish other types of goals over time—such as saving money or earning a promotion at work. Regardless of the scenario, the following tips could help you increase your willpower to get closer to reaching your goals.

Set reasonable goals

Setting goals that are specific and reasonable is usually the first step on the road to success. If you don’t, you may end up getting discouraged early on and losing belief in your own willpower—which may affect your willingness to try again. 

For example, if you’re looking to exercise more regularly, setting a goal of working out every day isn’t specific enough, so it may be too easy to give up on. It’s not reasonable, either, as you’ll need to not work out some days in order to rest or attend to other commitments. Instead, a more achievable goal might be to attend a workout class three times a week or go on a hike once a week. You’re more likely to achieve smaller, more realistic goals like these, and each one can help you along toward your larger goal.

Plan for temptation

Regardless of the goal you decide to set, you’re likely to face temptations to veer off course from time to time. While you can recover from such a setback, you may be better able to conserve momentum if you reduce the likelihood of this happening as much as possible. Planning ahead can help. For instance, if you’re trying to avoid drinking alcohol for one month, you could decide ahead of time on what you’ll say to decline a drink at a party, if offered. Having a script in mind could strengthen your resolve in the moment. Or if you’re trying to work on a creative project instead of watching TV on weekend evenings, you might temporarily hide the remote or disconnect the wi-fi to help yourself resist the temptation. 

Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness is a practice that can help you develop a sense of nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. When engaged in over time, it may produce a variety of health benefits, and it may even help you increase your willpower. This is because mindfulness is all about becoming aware of your emotions and inclinations before you act on them, if you do at all. Creating this space between thought or feeling and action may help you better control your behaviors. Research supports the idea that mindfulness may be associated with improved self-control.

Manage your stress levels

The experience of psychological stress puts you into fight-or-flight mode when the body devotes its resources toward handling a perceived threat. Research suggests that being in this mode may decrease an individual’s capacity for self-regulation—including willpower. That said, stressful situations are likely to occur in everyone’s life from time to time, which means that learning effective strategies for managing stress may help you boost your willpower. 

Some examples of stress-management strategies according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) include:

• Getting enough sleep
• Engaging in deep-breathing exercises
• Taking regular breaks from screens and the news
• Connecting socially with others
• Taking time to relax

Engage with your support system

Having a network of family, friends, neighbors, or others you can rely on for emotional support may help you manage stress, which may help you conserve willpower. You might also be able to find someone who is willing to hold you accountable for reaching your goals. For example, you could meet a neighbor for a walk twice a week if you’re trying to exercise more, or you could ask your partner to help you stay committed to eating out less by being open to cooking meals together.

Find support for reaching your goals in therapy

Meeting with a therapist could help you achieve your goals in many different ways. They can equip you with stress-management strategies, offer you a safe space to share your emotions along the way, and assist you in addressing any underlying challenges that could be making willpower or impulse control more difficult for you, such as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, or a form of neurodivergence. 

For some people, it can be difficult to gather the willpower to leave the house and attend in-person therapy sessions regularly. For others, commuting to and from an office each week is simply inconvenient or adds stress to their lives. In cases like these, online therapy may be worth considering as an alternative. You can sign up for an online therapy platform like BetterHelp and get matched with a licensed provider in a matter of days, and you can then meet with them via phone, video call, and/or in-app messaging from anywhere you have an internet connection. Research from over the last several years suggests that face-to-face and virtual therapy can be equally effective in most cases, so you can typically choose whichever format appeals to you.