All of this has practical implications for how we think about effort, self-discipline and failure in everyday life. From a first-person perspective, the phenomenology of a ‘lapse’ – mind-wandering, craving a break, or suddenly rethinking your goals – may actually reflect this adaptive gear-shifting, not a failure of character or a depleted... See more

Exercising willpower is painful, and we can’t rely on having enough of it to sustain us for the months it takes for the new standard to become easy to meet. From the start, we can’t wait to be done with our campaign of self-restriction, so we fall (or dive) off the wagon, and maybe try again in a few months.