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April 29, 2015

           Volume 17 - Number 17

      
Streamlining the Business of Commercial Real Estate
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YouConnect© is a Web-based Appraisal and Vendor Management solution enabling financial institutions to automate and streamline their process, while satisfying federal and state examination and auditing requirements.
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DataComp© is the No. 1 In-house Commercial Comparable Management Software on the market today made by and for commercial real estate appraisers.
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EDGE© is a simple to use, but powerful report writing solution. A stand-alone application that integrates seamlessly with Word, Excel and DataComp©. 

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Brenda Dohring Hicks

 

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Willpower, Nah, Not Now

 

When do you exert your willpower? Do we ever really exert willpower or do we just rely on habits? I got to thinking about this the other day, as I found myself really having to talk to myself to stay on task. Mentally I just wasn't there. Willpower sounds hard. It is hard. I think it's hard because it's a seemingly conscious act. Doing things out of habit is much easier. So where do the habits come from? Aren't they just repeatedly exerting willpower until it becomes ingrained? And what about the famous marshmallow test of the 1970's. You know the one where Walter Mischel placed preschoolers in front of a marshmallow and gave them a choice: they could eat it right away, or wait 15 minutes and get second one. Two thirds of the children ate the first marshmallow within a few minutes. The thought was that those who delayed their gratification were more likely, as teens, to have more self-control, handle stress more effectively and possibly even score higher on the SAT. How do we know what willpower we exhibited when we were preschoolers? And how is that behavior influencing us today in the workforce, if at all? Hmmm.

A little clarity on the follow up to the experiment might help. In 2011 nearly 60 people from Mischel's original study were studied. The study found that participants with higher self-control as children still showed higher self-control as adults. Comparatively those who couldn't wait for the second marshmallow still had lower self-control. A big variable in the follow up experiment was how willpower was impacted if emotion played a role. The results showed that exerting willpower depends on a person's sensitivity to emotional situations. It's never as simple as experiments would suggest, is it? Everything is such a soft science when it comes to human actions. Dang it. I wish it were easier. Maybe that's why it's important that we develop habits that serve us well. It's to get us through things when we're emotionally engaged.



I think I ascribe to the belief that developing workplace habits is better than applying willpower. But wait a minute; doesn't it take willpower to develop habits? Of course. It's a crazy chicken and the egg situation. But there is a lot of research out there that suggests it doesn't have to be, so maybe it's not as much as a chicken and the egg thing as we might think. Since decades of research suggest that willpower is like a muscle which gets fatigued when exercised, it also may get stronger the more you use it. And the strengthening might take as little as two weeks before improved performance is realized. We can all see some benefit in that, can't we? We can all see how it's worth it, to put some pressure on our willpower muscles if we can actually see a benefit in a short period of time. Or so it would seem.

I like it that I can rely on habits since it's efficient. Habits are unconscious - therefore automatic. Nice! It's nice to not have to think about a lot of the stuff that we do in the workplace out of habit because it requires the least amount of thought. Yet I am comforted by the fact that if I apply self-control, I can form new and beneficial habits. And research shows relying on habits generally results in better follow-thru and having more energy for important stuff so there's really good reasons to challenge those habits, form new ones and by doing so improve. It's cool to know that you can always find ways to improve. You're always stronger than you think. And while there's an urban legend out there that says it takes 21 days to form a new habit, better research shows it's not the time over which you do something, as much as it is the number of times you do something. Frequency plays a bigger role and so does the desire to do something. Pleasurable habits are way easier to form than ones that we feel we need to do rather than want to do. Don't we know it!

So who do you think you were at age four? Did you eat the marshmallow right away? Would you still? One thing I know for certain is that exerting willpower and forming new habits work best where groups create accountability and beliefs...just think of Alcoholics Anonymous. So I look forward to hearing and sharing your insights, successes and failures in implementing new habits or getting rid of old ones. 

I welcome your feedback through email.
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