Being resilient and determined over the long-term is uncharacteristically human behavior. It requires a lot of willpower when you are provoked by the machine of consumerism on a daily basis. However, achieving financial independence and being able to retire comfortably one day, requires a long-term commitment. A commitment to avoiding debt, saving investing. In order to help increase your willpower, this article will cover the following factors:

• Over Exertion
• Relief Periods
• Training The Willpower Muscle
• Moral Licensing
• Terror Management Theory
• Social Contagion & Selective Infection
• Self-Criticism & Craving Reduction
• Thought Suppression

1. Don’t Over Exert Yourself

Willpower is a limited resource and therefore it can be depleted. Studies have shown that theories of willpower can predict eating behavioural procrastination and self-regulated goal striving.

Drawing on willpower is like using a muscle. The body needs a rest period after exercise, particularly after intense physical activity. This is the same with willpower.

In fact, Suzanne Segerstrom, a researcher of psychological health, has identified autonomic, cardiovascular, neuroendocrine and immune system changes during acts of willpower. It’s fair to say that willpower is more than just a metaphor.

Overexertion of willpower will result in less ability to exert control over other things or maintain long term control over something. The application for saving here is that if you try to save too much or try too hard to save and this may fatigue your ability to save in the long run.

If you want to read more about how to nudge yourself into effortless saving, then you can read my previous post about it. This is all about how to save without suffering.

Use Relief Periods

All this information about willpower highlights the fact that relief periods are critical. Research shows that even a small boost in mood can give an increase to willpower and perseverance. Even small treats such as cookies and chocolate were enough in controlled environments to improve willpower. By contrast, participants in the same studies who had to restrain from eating these positive treats and could only eat radishes, displayed a significant impact on willpower.

Start To Train Your Willpower Muscle

I’ve come across a few instances where people attribute the ability to save to a frugal gene. However, I would argue that the evidence suggests that willpower and saving are down to a muscle. Consequently, this willpower muscle can be trained to improve performance. You will also be happy to hear that research has also shown improvements can be made in financial monitoring.The key message here is that if you are struggling to save, keep track of your finances and keep going!

2. Don’t Fall Prey To Moral Licensing

Moral Licensing, is what I am guilty of when I come home from the gym. As I’ve worked out and burned a ton of calories, I give myself license to eat any food in the house. I believe instances like this, and those that apply to your finances are crucial to align impulses with long-term goals and rewards. Cut back on something only if doing so rewards instead of punishing you.

I think that if you cause yourself to suffer in one area due to restriction, it will impact on another area. For example, you may stop yourself going out and having fun on Friday, only to buy yourself chocolate and a takeaway the next day to reward yourself. I always argue it’s key to have habits that kick in and automate the process of saving so this doesn’t happen.

3. Avoid Negative News Where Possible

Terror Management Theory is the theory that you spend more when exposed to negativity and death. The end result is comfort seeking and by consequence an increase in consumerism. TMT explains this behaviour as us trying to maintain our world or cultural view.

Interestingly, one study found that participants who wrote about dental pain comapred to a control group were less likely to invest in a savings fund, compared to items such as jewellery.

Want to spend less and save more? Avoid the news, avoid the media around knife crime in London, for example. These media outlets can misrepresent the reality, making it appear as if there is an epidemic of murder and violence. The actual statistics indicate that the murder rate in London is just 1.5 per 100,000.

Positivity, gratitude and mindfulness are the key to being able to harness willpower, rather than negativity and pessimism.

4. Beware Of Your Social Network

Social contagion and selective infection is the ‘spread of affect or behaviour from one person to another’. You may be familiar with the term ‘meme’. Both the scientific and popular interpretations of this term, are units of social contagion.

Memetics is the theory that, like a biological disease, thoughts can also be infected. This helps to develop and maintain an endemic culture, thus creating social norms.

Goals and thoughts are more likely to spread to you the closer associated you are with another person and depending on if you like them. This is known as goal infection and selective infection. Referring back to the social norms, the more normalised a certain behavior is, the more likely it is to influence your behavior.

Social Networks

With this in mind, it’s important to decide who you are spending your time with. One personal example of this is when I started my latest job. My colleagues are very spendy people and are happy to buy expensive lunches on Friday, along with bottles of wine on an evening and eating lunch out every day. I’m not judging them, but if that would have become my norm, it would have derailed my financial plan.

A more positive example is that by spending time on social media with people in the personal finance and financial independence circles, this can actually improve my willpower to save, because it’s the norm. The more I like people within these circles, the more powerful this becomes.

5. Don’t Be Too Self-Critical

The other day at work, I legitimately heard someone saying to a colleague:

“Oh, I’m on this diet, my Dad keeps making me feel bad about what I’m eating, so today I felt guilty, so to make myself feel better I got a subway.”

Despite the fact this makes me sound like an eavesdropper, I had to include it in this post. This is because it links in so perfectly with the research. This indicates that self-compassion rather thanself-criticism is better for willpower. That self-criticism, feelings of guilt, remorse, regret decrease willpower and optimism. It results in more overindulgence rather than being positive and not feeling guilty about our dieting or limitations does.

Craving Reduction

Ultimately, if we stress ourselves out by trying to save, this may ultimately result in cravings. As stress releases adrenaline, noradrenaline, cortisol into the body. In order to alleviate the feelings caused by these stress hormones, we will indulge in quick win behaviors to raise our blood sugar or induce the release of neurochemicals such as dopamine or serotonin.

For example, we buy things we don’t need, we smoke, we drink, we eat bad things. So I hope I have convinced you now to not be too hard on yourself. Be positive, be logical and replace your bad habits.

6. Think About What You Want, Not What You Don’t

Changing the way you think and speak can also be a powerful tool. However, there is an easy trap to fall into here. Thought suppression is paradoxical.

The more you try to suppress a thought, the more dominant it will become in your mind. Remember the last time someone told you to not think about something, and you couldn’t help but think about it?

Imagine if I tell you not to think about chocolate, chances are you are now thinking about how much you like chocolate. In fact, one study shows that when someone is told not to think about chocolate, they will eat twice as much as the control group.

This can also be applied to your finances, stop trying to suppress the urge to think about not buying things. In fact, sometimes just thinking about a craving might help stop the craving. Giving up thought control can increase behavioural control.

One key piece of advice is to practice mindfulness. Another is to change your language, instead of saying I won’t buy X, Y or Z, change the sentence to, I will save for X, Y, Z.

Remember To Use Targeted Willpower To Help You Save

I hope this post has helped to persuade you into being less self-critical and more mindful of your thoughts and feelings. Researching this post was a real eye-opener for me, in terms of some of the paradoxical behaviours we engage in (e.g. self-criticism).

If you are someone struggling to control your spending, you can take comfort in the fact that willpower can be trained. Whether it’s paying off debt, saving or investing, hopefully, you can now be smarter about how you use willpower to achieve these financial goals.

However, remember that willpower is a limited resource that you need to use sparingly to help you save money, otherwise it could work against you.