Comments on: Willpower is a muscle

By: Karen O

Karen O — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 01:59:44 +0000

Have to report that I couldn’t do it. My left hand couldn’t seem to find my teeth.

By: Karen O

Karen O — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:50:16 +0000

Joel Mark – I make my bed every morning.

Pauline – I had the same experience with flossing. Now I’ve been doing it regularly for several years, & always get positive remarks from my dentist, too.

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By: Joel Mark

Joel Mark — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:12:06 +0000

Will power (rightly applied) is a virtue, not merely a muscle. It often takes muscle of various sorts to practice it but you cannot measure will power itself in tangible terms.

Plato’s three parts of the soul were the reasoning part, the emotive or affective part and the will (read; scarecrow, tin man and lion).

Leave aside the Wizard of Oz’s portrayal. I think Plato saw the will (the impulse to courage, patience, virtue, etc) as the prominent part of the healthy soul, deeper even than reason and copassion.

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By: Pauline

Pauline — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:18:20 +0000

I’ll stick to holding my toothbrush in my left hand.

I did train myself to take notes in school with my non-dominant hand, and I can’t say it did a thing for helping me with self-discipline in eating or exercise.

If you want a new dental-hygiene-related habit to practice, I’d recommend flossing. That took a LOT of willpower to make myself do that every night for the first few months. (I didn’t notice any effects on my other habits, but it sure is nice, the past several years, to have the dentist tell me what great job I do.)

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By: worthygirl

worthygirl — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:51:39 +0000

I’ll join you in the tooth brush experiment.

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By: Joel Mark

Joel Mark — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:40:20 +0000

And if you make your bed every morning for two straight weeks, there will be world peace.

…And yes, my mom was fully in charge of world peace when I was a kid.

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By: Karen O

Karen O — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:21:10 +0000

Llama – I remember you writing that one should not merely “try”, but “do”. I’ve kept that in mind.

Wiglaf – I’m a maverick! (Yeah, right.)

Glad you’re joining me in brushing more than one tooth. Just don’t use the wrong brush!

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By: llama

llama — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:29:18 +0000

The basic willingness to do is one of the most important attributes required for success. The doing is what actually strengthens character, confidence and self esteem but it takes willingness before any doing is going to happen.

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By: Wiglaf

Wiglaf — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:15:53 +0000

Wow. Karen O is the only one so far who is willing to brush more than one tooth with the weak hand to increase will power.

This is interesting… definitely worth testing. I’ll up the ante and brush all my teeth with the wrong hand for a couple weeks. I just hope my teeth don’t rot out from bad brushing…

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By: Karen O

Karen O — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:41:56 +0000

Just for fun, I will try the teeth-brushing experiment.

I have been good about doing my exercising for about a couple months now. At the same time, I was having trouble resisting my sweet tooth. But I think I have finally come to the point of being sick & tired of giving in to that, & am now ready to get more serious about healthier eating.

Who knows, I might even do something really drastic, like eating vegetables!

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