Ego depletion - when the battery rans out of self control

I had the pleasure to read an absolutely amazing book in the recent weeks, it’s called Triggers written by Marshall Goldsmith and apart of the fact that this book is really opened my mind for being more mindful with my actions, what I say, how I say, how I react and how does my reaction changing with the environmental changes, I also read about a really interesting concept in the book, called Ego depletion. Ego depletion basically a term used first by Roy F. Baumeister in the 1990’s for the phenomena of giving in easier for temptations when we are depleted throughout the day.

We start each day with one hopefully fully charged battery, just like a phone, if we had enough quality sleep, food, proper shelter etc… This energy what we have for the given day is being depleted throughout the day, which is affecting us in our decision making.

We are more likely to give in for the occasional shopping, cheat meals, money wasting, time wasting if we are depleted. Ego depletation is natural and we have to bear this in mind as it is affecting our behaviour, our decision making and ultimately our life. Most probably all of you had moments when you realized you shouldn’t have said this or that, shouldn’t have replied in a rude manner and you might say you just had a rough day, but what if I tell you, it is caused by ego depletion, your battery were running low, you were less aware of your actions.

When we are exhausted, our self-discipline and willpower are running low and we are less concious about our decisions.

Ego depletion is working in every level of our life, including our diet plan. The visual representation quite accurate, I have to admit.

There’s only one way to do something against ego depletion and it lies in structure. We have to build a structure among our schedule which can help us to overcome on difficulties. Obviously no structure is bulletproof, but they are relatively reliable weapons against depletion.

The key to overcome depletion lies in structure, the structure’s manifestation lies in developing good habits.

We are already by a good point when we are realizing that depletion is an issue which might affect our decision making too much. So let’s look into the structure part; we need to develop and incorporate good or better habits to help us boost our “battery level” during the day. We have to be more disciplined throughout the day but in the same time we have the same “capacity” to do that, therefore we must set up rules to help us overcome our daily tasks.

The bad news is that I can’t tell you what habits gonna save your day, cause I don’t know your day to day life but let me give you few examples.

Are you on a diet? Are you lazy going to the gym? Are you cheating on your meal plan? Not managing to stick to your gym plan? Change your structure; go to the gym before work cause if you leave it for after work you might gonna find excuses easier, like I already had a really hard day at work, won’t be able to sleep enough, I still have to cook/clean at home etc… When you are fresh in the morning you are going to find it more easy to hit the gym than late in the evening if you lack of really strong desire to go to the gym. If you’re on diet and you eat too much crap than solve this problem by shopping groceries once a week and don’t keep no chips, fizzy drinks, chocolates and crap at home. Never shop when you are hungry. Find a gym buddy and push each other, it will definitely boost your willpower to go to the gym and to keep up your newly developed routine.

Are you spending too much money on stuff you don’t need? Stop browsing online retailers, if necessary block them in your browser, stop going to shopping malls, stop looking at instagram and other social media networks. If you find it hard to save/invest money, change your habit and save the amount you intended to save/invest in the time you receive your pay check and live off the rest you have on your balance and not the other way around like the way you did before.

Never leave a tough decision, money making decision to be made in the end of the day when you are already exhausted, instead make these decisions when you are fresh and full of energy.

Time to time unexpected things going to happen, but it won’t matter cause you have a guarding structure and you can’t prepare for an unexpected issue anyway. Keep your calm.

If you want to achieve something you’ve never had, you have to do something you have never done.

Your sincerely

To/Minimal