For instance, it shed some light on the following. Throughout my life I’ve had trouble getting up on time in the morning. Well, about two years ago I thought I solved it by volunteering to give an older gentleman a ride to the synagogue at 6 AM every morning, which I still do. Well, the good news is that 95% percent of the time, this arrangement has done wonders and transformed not only my wake up time, but the rest of my day as well). The problem is that on the days when he’s sick and has to pray at home, I sometimes end up waking up as late as 8:30 AM, since I don’t have to pick him up. In other words, this early waking time never became a habit despite doing it every day for two years.

What I am now realizing better after reading this part of your series is that what I haven’t done is replace the things oversleeping has done for me with something else. For instance, oversleeping admittedly provides for me 1) the needed rest (doh!) 2) control – “no one’s going to tell me when to get out of bed” 3) comfort (it’s warmer at 8:30), 4) a necessity to pray in a rush (yes, rushing through prayer almost defeats its purpose, but it sure is easier), 5) less time in the day to do those things which I don’t like to do 6) an opportunity to have quiet time with myself 7) ability to go to sleep late, so I can stay up doing things I like to do.

Anyhow, keep up the good work. It is ironic that as a CEO of a time-management productivity software company, I still have issues getting my own schedule under control, as I described above – but those are the facts.

Willpower comes into play whenever you are trying to override what your brain naturally wants to do. If you think of your habits as being rivers, they have carved a depression in the earth. Shifting that dip requires willpower.

Willpower is like a battery that runs down. Is that a valid simile?