In Greek mythology, the story of Odysseus and the Sirens illustrates a paradigmatic example of self-control. When the hero of Homer's epic prepared to travel past the Sirens, mythical creatures who ...

Whenever I've thought about willpower before, it's been in the context of not doing something. Like not eating that piece of chocolate cake. Or not having that seemingly essential extra cup of coffee.

Does willpower have a limit? For more than 15 years, psychologists believed the answer to that question was clearly yes. Indeed, a whole line of research, based on a seminal study published in 1998, ...

Is willpower a limited resource? I have written a few times about factors that affect willpower. Willpower is the name that we give to the mechanisms (most of which involve the frontal lobes of the ...

In the past, researchers described willpower as a muscle which could be strengthened but also depleted with overuse. Clinical psychologist Ros Taylor takes the view that willpower is a mindset which, ...

But how exactly do you develop greater willpower and self-control? Wishing and hoping don’t work–but taking advantage of the science of self-control will. The following is from Belle Beth Cooper and ...

It's around this time of year – two weeks after alleging a total habits overhaul – that the idea of willpower begins to occupy an outsized portion of our minds: why don't I have more of it, how can I ...

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Willpower is sorely tested at Easter, when temptation comes in abundance and is often coated in chocolate. But a new book suggests that people who exercise greater self-control are those who have ...

Is this the year you're going to run a marathon, cut out processed sugars and finally apply for that promotion you've been after? If only you had enough willpower or self-control to see that plan ...