However, you seem to be coming at this point from a strange angle.

The more insight you gain into yourself and the more self-aware you become, the easier it is to choose your response to situations.

People with insight therefore, have a level of willpower. That means we can choose our response to our ‘influences’ based on chosen values which we have deeply thought about.

If you let you influences determine you then you don’t have willpower.

The point is that self aware people are able to have a level of wIllpower.

To say you are totally determined takes away people’s responsibility for themselves. I don’t like the idea of promoting that.

Thank u ..

Also .. i wanted to reply to ur post but everything i wanted to say “Cris” already said before me

For example, Newton’s gravitational theory, which excludes relativity, is fine to a finite degree for predicting when the planets will be where. It works. Relativity theory refines Newtonian theory, it does not supplant it. If it did, then we scientists demand that, in the words of Carl Sagan: “remarkable claims require remarkable evidence.” In fact you evidently would say of Newtonian Mechanic Theory that

“It is just a handy, placeholder theory most people use to explain systems that they don’t understand.”

Yes, it’s handy. Because it works!

WILLPOWER – is the label common society uses to describe the exercise of choice between two or more actions who’s extended outcomes are in direct conflict with the one which has been intellectually predetermined to have higher value.

If you are defining ‘willpower’ as some other eruditic transfiguration, please clarify yourself. What you state as ‘better’ than ‘willpower’ do not demand willpower at all by the common definition that I have provided. Let me tackle them:

HABITS – these are automatically forthcoming, there’s no conflict between courses of action in the first place.
ENERGY MANAGEMENT – Not sure what you’re getting at. Willpower is just about making choices at moments of truth, where at least two options exist.
MOTIVATION – You say that ‘Willpower doesn’t make things happen. [Motivation] compels action.’ I submit that motivation keeps you focused on a distant goal, but in that process are moments when you execute a choice by brute force of hand, with your mind momentarily vacant of even the motivating goal. That is willpower.
CONFIDENCE – Again, willpower takes place in the span of a moment at the boundary between multiple choices.

The list you provide sounds more like a general recipe for achieving something and grafting it onto the willpower term. You assail the concept on the premise that such a ‘model’ does not include electrochemical interaction so it must be dismissibly false, and offer your own genius to expose the truth of our helpless state of being. Again: remarkable claims require remarkable evidence. But let us first start with a much more remarkably clear definition of ‘willpower’. This expose’, by hijacking the term without definition, only disserves readers who might in turn be convinces that willpower, the actual and ubiquitously understood version of the term, is utterly fictitious and therefore a useless notion to draw upon. So what would you have them believe the next time they are presented with that jumbo slice of their all-time favorite triple-layer chocolate cake? They have not even access to ‘willpower’ in order to just push the plate away? Willpower occurs within a moment’s span.

Please do not remove this comment simply because it does not resonate with your own view, like you have done to other posts of the same sort. If you have a counter argument, then please provide it. Otherwise, your sincerity in seeking a ‘deeper understanding’ of reality is a placeholder, indeed.

A colleague of mine (Prof. Sicque) pointed out the following:

You never define willpower for your following argument. You also suggest that the scientific method is a waste of time in the ‘placeholder’ theory. ALL SCIENTIFIC THEORIES ARE PLACEHOLDER THEORIES. If the model describes and predicts behavior, it stands. When it fails to do so it’s revised. Example: Newtonian gravitational ‘model’ replaced by ‘Relativistic model’. At the heart of it, science never claims to tell the whole ‘truth’ by a model. That is an arrogance shed long ago.

The willpower ‘model’ stands just fine: Conduct actions based on long term goals rather than short-term pleasure. Works for me.

Notice how nobody has given you a “digg it”? And did anyone notice how you didn’t put a “Diss It” on the page? So people can only leave positive commentary?

I guess you can’t handle people picking apart your stuff.

My hope is that someone gets to read an opposing view before you delete it again.

What’s next? Are you going to talk about the things that comprise the word “Determination” how about “Motivation”. That would be so useful.

You may not agree with my commentary, but this appears to be less about whether willpower exists and more about the factors that contribute to a specific set of behavior.

Maybe I am overeducated but what purpose does this article serve? Is there a specific recommendation or call to action?

Your “models” are nothing more than common sense reasons/issues that reinforce a person’s will to succeed. And in my view don’t merit a delineation from the broader umbrella of “Willpower”. They are facets of willpower, not new constructs.

But don’t we need willpower to improve our skill that we lack or to gain self discipline ?

I’ll try to address some of the points that were brought up:

Useful/True distinction – You’re absolutely correct. I happen to believe that a true theory is almost always more useful than a false theory if it is properly understood. The only reason that you should use a placeholder theory is that you can’t fully understand the theory that should replace it or you don’t know what theory should replace it.

Willpower has been a dangerous theory because many people use it as the source of their perceived failure or the failure of others. If you can’t achieve your goals you lack willpower. Sometimes you lack skill or discipline (think training not will) but rarely is it a function of your willpower.

More understanding leads to better results.

-Scott