I was always thinking that something is wrong with willpower. There are so many quotes about the power of willpower, but it just doesn’t work every time when we need it. An anecdote I heard a long time ago is one of the best when I think about it.
A famous writer and painter from my country was also famous as a person who likes to drink a lot. He was an old type of bohemian and a big part of his life he had spent in the pubs and taverns. A favorite street of many artists of that time was a street where taverns were it the row, one after another. Well, it happened that one day our writer decided not to drink any more. He passed by one tavern, and another, and one more. He passed by all taverns in the street. When he reached the last one, he was so happy that he missed all these places, and decided to congratulate himself. With a big, good drink in the last tavern.
I think many of us know this “last tavern ” feeling when we are trying something so hard, but at the end we just don’t have strength any more. The problem is that some people feel really bad about it, as they are too weak. And this definitely is not good. We all have weak points, and weak point doesn’t mean a weak person. I see this problem often when people struggle with weight loss. The challenge with willpower is that we have limited amount of it, and we use it for self-control and for making decisions in all areas of our life. It is not strange that in some moment our willpower just breaks down. This explanation was given by Roy Baumeister and this his about willpower is really good. I was about to explain the whole story, but he will do it much better.
Shiny introvert 