Posted on October 07, 2014 by Jenny Cromack

Did any of you read the article in The Times this weekend about self-control? The article was about the work of American Psychologist Walter Mischel and how Mischek believes that willpower and self-control are not inborn traits but that we do have some control over the choices we make. No matter what our ‘natural’ willpower is like, he believes that we can improve our self-control by changing the way we think about temptation and recognising the triggers.

As a personal trainer, this is often something I talk to my clients about and so I found this article really interesting. I though that sharing it on our blog may help some of our readers improve their self-control and therefore lead them to make better choices and achieve their goals.

You may have heard of the Marshmallow Test which Mischel created, this was a study performed in the 1960’s about self-control in children. I won’t go through the whole study as you can read about it online, but the children who were in the original study are still being followed now and those who had better self-control performed better in school and now have fewer weight problems, better jobs and are less prone to drug and alcohol addiction.

This test lead Mischel to study how the brain works when faced with temptation, developing a theory of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ parts of the brain.

The hot part of the brain is impulsive and emotional and likes immediate gratification. It’s that part of the brain which screams ‘YES, DO IT!’ when you want to eat that cream cake but know you shouldn’t!

The cold part of the brain is reflective, calmer and more goal-orientated. It’s the part of the brain which tells you ‘DON’T EAT THE CAKE….YOU WON’T GET INTO THOSE SIZE 12 JEANS IF YOU DO!’

So, to have self-control we need to develop the cold part of the brain so that it over-rides the cheeky self-indulgent hot part of the brain (the naughty devil on your shoulder!).

Let’s take the cream cake example. If you sit thinking about how nice the cake looks, how good it will taste then you will want to eat it, this is all controlled by the hot part of the brain…instant feelings. Instead you need to kick the cold part of the brain into action by:

a. avoid thinking about it (the cream cake) in the first place

b. think about the bigger picture, the bigger reward, etc. So, is eating the cream cake going to help you fit into those size 12 jeans…..definitely not! However not eating it, will get you to your goal!

This will help to activate the cold part of your brain and improve your self-control.

In experiments performed on smokers, those who focused on the long-term implication such as increased risk of lung cancer were more likely to be successful at stopping smoking. In another experiment adults who were asked to focus on the long-term effects of over eating i.e obesity, weight gain and illness, experienced less food cravings.

So if you want to improve your self control and achieve your goals then you need to learn to turn off the hot part of your brain and ignite the cold part of your brain.