Forget Willpower, Use the Principle of Least Effort
Break bad habits and create good ones, easily
What if, by choosing what seems easier to do, you could more readily break bad habits or start good ones?
Well, it turns out you can, by employing the “Principle of Least Effort”.
And oh, how I wish I’d learned about this a long time ago.
Here’s how the American Psychological Association defines the principle of least effort:
“the basic behavioral hypothesis that an organism will choose a course of action that appears to require the smallest amount of effort or expenditure of energy. Also called law of least action; least effort principle”
You and I are the organisms they’re referring too and this is how we most often behave. It’s part of human nature. Why did we evolve to be this way? I’m not sure, maybe it was to conserve energy in a world where calories were scarce.
It’s less important to know why this phenomenon exists and more important to accept that for most of us, this is our default mode of operation.
So, it’s time to stop berating yourself for not being more disciplined or having more willpower. Instead, you can start engaging this phenomenon of human psychology and allow it to change your life.
