Determination or Willpower?

There is a very popular assumption that will power is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. But like any other muscle, if you use willpower too often without any rest or recovery between time, eventually it fatigues and gives out. The problem that we all face living in the modern world is that it can feel like one constant exercise in flexing our willpower muscles. Out apps and social feeds are designed to keep us scrolling, and we are programmed a nonstop barrage of junk food and junk content. Repeatedly resisting these temptations is very tiring; studies indicate it leads to lower performance on both physical and mental tasks

Perhaps an option to improve performance is to focus on strengthening your willpower. There is some evidence that meditation may help with this. Other research indicated that regular exercise is also favorable to building willpower. One of the studies in the book Peak Performance shows that even when we do not check our telephones during a face-to-face conversation, simply having a phone present - say, on silent mode, sitting face down on the table - detracts from the actual quality of the conversation. Researchers guess this is because we are using so much energy to resist the urge to check the phone.

Maybe the better option would be instead of always relying on willpower is to consciously design our environments to remove the temptations that regularly get in the way of us living our best lives.