The Best Willpower Hack I Know (My Cookie Jar Story)

My coworker leaned over the cookie jar, opened it up, then put the top back down and walked away.

“Way to not eat carbs, Jon!! Woohoo!!” I thought.

And so in the name of truthful praise I told him “Nice willpower, Jon!”

His response…

Changed my life.

Why?

Well…I’ll just let Jon do the talking:

“No I actually wanted one…it was empty!”

He wanted those cookies!

He was ready to crush those cookies!

His motivation was strong

BUT

His environment stopped him.

Why?

Design beats willpower.

Don’t just take the cookie jar for it…many of the world’s most prominent experts in the field of behavior change seem to agree:

“Willpower doesn’t work.” - Benjamin Hardy (Organizational psychologist and author of the book of the same name)

“Designs crushes willpower! If you can design your life and behaviors well, you don’t need to rely on willpower.” - BJ Fogg (Behavior Scientist, Founder of the Stanford Behavior Design Lab)

“Many of the actions we take each day are simply a response to the environment we find ourselves in.” - James Clear (author of the New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits)

The lesson:

Make it hard to do things that keep you from reaching your goals.

Here’s 3 examples I use:

  • Don’t use your phone as an alarm clock** (if you want to have a proactive, phone-free morning)

  • No junk food in the house (if you’re trying to lose weight)

  • No TV in the bedroom (if you’re trying to sleep better)

Make it easy to do things that do.

Here’s 3 things work for me:

  • Making a list of 5 “Must Do’s” for tomorrow, written up the night before

  • Leaving my gym bag by the door…also packed the night before

  • A nutrition-stocked kitchen (ie. only eat food that you can pick, pluck, fish, or hunt…and no, for the last time, you can’t hunt macaroni and cheese!!)

Empty your “cookie jar”... Fill up your life.

What “cookie jars” do you have in your life that you could empty?

Post below!

**Hat tip to James Clear for this tip!