Increase Your Willpower To Achieve Your Goals

Assignment: Begin by reading the passage below.
Increase Your Willpower to Achieve Your Goals
by Nanci Hellmich
About 93% of people say they set a goal to change a behavior at the beginning of the
year* according to a new survey of 566 adults conducted by Harris Interactive for the American
Psychological Association. Lack of willppwer is the No. 1 reason that people give for falling
short. But the majority (71%) think willpower is something they can learn.
“It turns out that they are right,” says psychologist Steven Breckler, APA’s executive
director for science who has reviewed the research on this topic. Willpower goes by many
definitions, including self-control and delaying gratification, he says. “It’s the ability to resist
immediate temptation in order to achieve some longer-term goal.’Hy^ ■—
~~ Studies show that some people are better at resisting temptation than others he says
“They seem to innately have more self-control.”
“Part of the problem for many people is that resisting temptation takes a lot of mental
energy,” Breckler says. “You have to talk to yourself, distract yourself and remind yourself of
the longer-term goal. That can lead to mental exhaustion, which is the enemy of self-control ” he
says.
But you can strengthen that ability. He compares willpower to a muscle. Some people’s
muscles are stronger thamothers’, but if you work your muscles wisely, you can make them
stronger, he says. Here are some ways to increase your willpower:
practice self-control;
set short-term, realistic goals;
reduce temptation;
focus on one goal at a time.

Adapted from USA TODAY； March 5, 2012.
Writing Directions
Read the passage above and write an essay responding to the ideas it presents. In your essay, be sure to
summarize the passage in your own words, stating the author’s most important ideas. Develop your essay
by identifying one idea in the passage that you feel is especially significant, and explain its significance.
Support your claims with evidence or examples drawn from what you have read, learned in school and/or
personally experienced. ’
Remember to review your essay and make any changes or corrections that are needed to help your reader
follow your thinking. You will have 90 minutes to complete your essay.