Dr. Kentaro Fujita

I usually tell myself like, you know, what would my heroes do in this situation?

So the quote unquote, what would Jesus do?

I think it's a very effective strategy in those kinds of situations.

You imagine someone that you really admire or you imagine someone who looks up to you and you want to be that person that you admire or you want to be that person that people see in you.

That for me helps me get going at the beginning of exercise.

When it comes toward the end, when I'm like just pumping out that last rep or I'm just the last minute of a really hard climb, these things don't work so well for me.

Like for me at that point, I just want to grit my teeth and get it done.

And so willpower might be a better strategy.

So I think we have to explore the entirety of the self-control toolbox.

And through trial and error, find what works best for us.

This is another reason why I would like to stress to your listeners that self-control is a skill that you tailor for yourself, and it's a lifelong journey.

I'm not going to be able to get up here and say, do X, Y, Z, and all of a sudden people are going to be amazing.

Instead, they have to try and they have to fail, and it's in the failure where you actually learn the most because you say, oh, that's not for me, or at least that wasn't for me at this time.

The reason why I find this approach really exciting and also hopeful is that I think a lot of people, when they fail at self-control, they just say, oh, I'm a terrible person.

I'm never going to get this.

I just have bad self-control, bad willpower.

But instead, the learning approach, the toolbox approach just says, okay, that tool didn't work this time.

And failure represents an opportunity for self-growth and exploration and discovery, which makes it a lot more positively toned as opposed to, wow, I really screwed up.

I'm a terrible person.

My goal is forever gone.