When it comes to self control, the frontal lobe of your brain is very important. There are many things that we do that lessen its function. This lecture (by Dr. Neil Nedley) will discuss them and make suggestions as to things that can be done to enhance your frontal lobe function, and allow you to make better decisions.

Things to consider:

1) music (with mention of the types of music that are helpful and harmful).  There are also comments about the impact of TV.

2) avoidance of trauma, even mild trauma

3) mindfulness breathing

4) sunlight

5) exercise

6) critical thinking, and searching for truth like as listed in proverbs

7) good lifestyle, and improve health minimizing chronic disease

Habits in these areas will improve the functioning of the frontal lobe, and will help on have greater willpower and the ability to do what one should and avoid what one should not do.  These are true seeds to happiness.

http://lifestyletv.se/on-demand/?program=221

Kelly McGonigal lists 5 strategies that have been scientifically proven to build willpower. They include:

1) training your willpower physiology
2) forgiving yourself
3) making friends with your future self
4) predicting your failure
5) surfing the urge

Not all of the have to be used, and personally I like 1 and 5 the most. I suggest that you watch and share this video 🙂

http://youtu.be/V5BXuZL1HAg

Willpower; You can lose it…

Research conducted by Roy Braumeister suggests that self-control (one of two important traits linked to success in life) is a consumable resource. That is the more you use it, the more difficulty you can have in both doing and not doing (resisting temptation). He was able to demonstrate this depletion in self-control by simply asking participants to watch a movie and ignore the words that flashed across the bottom of the screen (which requires self-control). Taken in total there are many observations that can be made concerning self-control (after reading several research papers on the topic):

– self control is needed to both do things that you need to do and to avoid the things that you should avoid.

-as consumable resource, it is better to expend it doing things that are important vs avoiding things that you should not do

– those who are good at self-control, seem to minimize the things that they need to avoid (probably giving them more energy to do the things that they need to do)

– self-control can be built like a muscle, the key strategy is to minimize temptation at times that your self-discipline bucket is depleted, and allow adequate time for recovery.

– when building self control, it is better to start small, and monitor your behavior.

– daily rest and Sabbath are likely very important has they likely replenish your allotment of self-control

– the wisdom in The Lords Prayer; “lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil”

To hear from Roy Baumeister check out this video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibui4M4eito

This is the third in another lecture series from Andy Stanley on making good decisions.  This is one is about effective managing of  your most important asset…

“Ask It PT 3: Time Over Time” from Your Move: http://yourmove.is/episode//

A very important question to ask: What is the wise thing to do?