Enjoy Greater Success by Improving Your Impulse Control

Nobody arrives in the world already knowing how to hold back an impulse. It gets built over time, and the work never really ends. When you can govern your impulses, you give yourself room to be patient and you stop yourself from snapping back at a situation in ways you'll regret. The same skill keeps you from handing over money you haven't got. Think of it as a habit you keep refining for the rest of your life rather than a box you tick once.

It helps to separate the large impulses from the small ones. A large one might be running your credit card up to its limit on something you don't need but badly want in the moment. The smaller ones are quieter: lighting a cigarette while supposedly quitting, or drifting over to your favorite social feed when you should be working. Both kinds respond to the same opening move, which is to cut off the source.

Interrupting the impulse is where the real leverage sits. If you can't act on a craving the instant it appears, the odds you act on it at all drop sharply. Temptation that isn't within arm's reach rarely wins. A few examples of clearing the way: if you're dieting, get the snacks and trigger foods out of the house entirely. If video games eat your afternoons, put them somewhere awkward to reach. Trying to quit smoking? Bin every cigarette and butt, and get rid of the ashtrays too. Leave the TV remote across the room so you watch less by default. And if your commute passes shops that drain your wallet, pick a different route home.

Once you've learned to break the loop, the next job is keeping that progress alive so the control actually strengthens. By now you know your own triggers, which means you can swap them for something steadier. One trick: every time you skip the cigarette or resist the sweet tooth, drop a dollar in a jar. Set a ceiling, say $500, and when you hit it, treat yourself properly. Give in, and a dollar comes back out. The jar keeps your attention on the bigger payoff and teaches you to pause before acting.

Not every impulse needs to be stamped out. If games are your thing, give yourself half an hour a day and leave it there. The point isn't total denial of what you enjoy; it's keeping the time you spend on it in bounds. Save the full cutoff for habits that give you nothing back, like smoking.

When a craving starts climbing, fill the space with something else. About to eat what you shouldn't? Go do something that pulls you away from it. Write in a journal, take a walk, reach for anything constructive. You could also just eat something healthy instead of the thing you're avoiding. With the easy options already out of the picture, this gets noticeably simpler.

People crave instant gratification but balk at the effort it would take to earn it. Oddly, that laziness works in your favor here: once the temptation requires effort to reach, a lot of its pull evaporates. You already carry some impulse control, because every adult does. There's always more to build on it, though. Reacting on reflex is the thing to guard against, since it skips the thinking that leads to decent decisions. You have what you need. The only piece left is to start using it.

Rosemary Kitchen

Resources: Plante, T. (2010). Six Principles to Best Manage Impulses to Maximize Life Satisfaction and Success. Retrieved on February 17, 2015 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/do-the-right-thing/201005/six-principles-best-manage-impulses-maximize-life-satisfaction-and