Willpower

of self-control to enjoy it. Too many of us tend to procrastinate even when it comes to pleasure because we succumb to the planning fallacy when we estimate “resource slack,” as behavioral economists term it. We assume we’ll magically have more free time in the future than we do today. So we say yes to a work commitment three months from now that we’d never accept if it were next week—and then discover too late that we still don’t have any time for it. Researchers term this the “Yes . . . Damn!” effect.
    And we keep putting off present pleasures, like visiting the zoo or getting away for the weekend. There’s so much of this procrastination that airlines and other marketers save billions of dollars annually from frequent flyer miles and gift certificates that go unredeemed. Like pathological tightwads who end up with saver’s remorse, procrastinators of pleasure wind up regretting the trips not taken and the fun forgone. Whether you’re working or playing, you’ll find more happiness and less stress by going on offense. Your ideal of paradise might be three weeks of doing nothing on a tropical island, but you can’t get there without making plans in advance—and maybe, in the case of workaholics, establishing some bright-line rules against working in paradise.
    Self-control is ultimately about much more than self-help. It’s essential for savoring your time on earth and sharing joy with the people you love. Of all the benefits that have been demonstrated in Baumeister’s experiments, one of the most heartening is this: People with stronger willpower are more altruistic. They’re more likely to donate to charity, to do volunteer work, and to offer their own homes as shelter to someone with no place to go. Willpower evolved because it was crucial for our ancestors to get along with the rest of the clan, and it’s still serving that purpose today. Inner discipline still leads to outer kindness.
    That’s why, despite all the foibles and failings described in this book, there’s reason to be bullish on self-control. Willpower is still evolving. Lots of us have succumbed lately to new temptations, and there will be plenty of unexpected challenges ahead. But no matter what new technologies arise, no matter how overwhelming some of the new threats seem, humans have the capacity to deal with them. Our willpower has made us the most adaptable creatures on the planet, and we’re rediscovering how to help one another use it. We’re learning, once again, that willpower is the virtue that sets our species apart, and that makes each one of us strong.

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Acknowledgments
    We wish to thank the many people who made this book possible and who contributed in so many ways to make it better. We’ll start with Kris Dahl, our literary agent extraordinaire, who helped us develop the idea and delivered us to the expert hands of our editor, Ann Godoff. We deeply appreciate the support and guidance from Ann, who never lost perspective and never lost her patience either. We’re also grateful to the rest of the team at The Penguin Press, especially Lindsay Whalen and Yamil Anglada, and to Laura Neeley of ICM, all of whose willpower seemed similarly inexhaustible.
    We owe special thanks to the many colleagues who discussed their work with us and offered suggestions for the book, starting with Dan Ariely, who originally suggested the project. Kathleen Vohs was particularly helpful in pointing us to specific findings and developments in the fast-moving research literature on self-regulation. We’re grateful to George Ainslie, Ian Ayres, Jack Begg, Warren Bickel, Benedict Carey, Christopher Buckley, Ruth Chao, Pierre Chandon, Alexander Chernev, Stephen Dubner, Esther Dyson, Stuart Elliott, Eli Finkel, Catrin Finkenauer, Winifred Gallagher, Daniel Gilbert, James Gorman, Todd Heatherton, Wilhelm Hoffman, Walter Isaacson, Dean Karlan, Ran Kivetz, Gina Kolata, Jonathan Levav, George Loewenstein, Dina Pomeranz, Michael McCullough, William Rashbaum, Martin Seligman, Piers Steel, June Tangney, Gary Taubes, Dianne Tice, Jean Twenge, Christine Whelan, and Jim and Phil Wharton.
    We’re indebted to the people whose stories are told in this book, including Amanda Palmer, Jim Turner, David Allen (whose GTD system is still being used by Tierney), Drew Carey, David Blaine, Eric Clapton, Mary Karr, Deborah Carroll, Cyndi Paul and her family, and Oprah Winfrey. We owe